A history of Preston firefighting

In the middle of the last century, two Preston firemen set about researching the history of firefighting in the town, combing the archives of the corporation, local newspapers and the Sun Insurance company of London.

The result of their labours was published as a 50-page pamphlet: History of Preston County Fire Brigade from the Guild Merchant of 1702 to the Guild Merchant of 1952.

The two authors were Leading Fireman Joseph Wilkinson and Fireman John Mullaniff. Their publication is an impressive piece of local history research, including numerous photographs of fires and fire engines.

The following extract from the early days of firefighting in Preston gives a flavour.

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In 1948 during the demolition of old property in Craggs Row and Harrisons Hill, Moor Lane, Preston, an old ‘Sun’ fire-mark, was discovered, attached to part of an old windmill. Research by the Sun Insurance, London office showed that this fire-mark, No. 636503 related to an insurance policy taken out on January 13th, 1795 by John Singleton and Thomas Buxton, described as “Of Preston in the City of Lancaster, Corn Dealers.”

In the Orders of the 1702 Preston Guild Merchant is to be found “an order against smoking or taking tobacco in the streets, back wiends, and lanes’ which was enacted in consequence of “much damage having been done and many houses and barns having been unhappily set on fire.”

It was further ordered that any one smoking in any place where there was any hay, straw, turf, wood, chips, shavings, flax, tow, hemp, or other combustible matter, or on any house he was repairing, or on any cart laden with corn or hay, he should be liable to a penalty of Five Shillings.

Before the 1722 Guild Merchant great concern was expressed concerning the danger of fire, and to eliminate this risk, the Hon. Daniel Poulteney, M.P., for Preston, presented to the town “an engine for the extinguishing of fire, of late invention and which had been tried with success.”

The Borough Council decided to purchase a second engine of the same type, and having granted £20 from the Corporation funds directed the Mayor “to appoint some proper person to go about in order to get contributions to defray the remainder of the cost.”

In 1729 Robert Abbatt, a chapman, and Thomas Kellett, a joiner, entered into an agreement with the Corporation to supply the inhabitants of the Borough with water. For this purpose two closes of land near to Avenham Garden were leased to them by the Corporation at an annual rent of £4. The water was collected from Syke Hill and the waste ground about the town, and deposited in a cistern situated in the North West corner of the old gas works in Glovers Street. From here it was then conveyed through the town in bored trees which supplied a cistern conduit in the market place. Taps were fixed at intervals from which the water was sold. One of the conditions of the agreement was that in addition to these taps there should be five water cocks or plugs at such places as the Mayor should direct, for the extinguishment of fires.

A fund “Subscriptions for Fire Engines” was opened in 1803, to which the citizens of the town subscribed very generously and from this fund four engines were purchased. Research by the Sun Insurance Office brought to light the following information :—

“Two entries appear in our minute books, dated the 13th September, 1804, and the 10th March, 1825, which voted £21 and £20 respectively, to Preston towards an engine.”