Fire Engines Photos

My home town Darlington had a 1938 27 metre Morris Magirus, which - apart from the slightly shorter ladder - was identical to the London ones. I believe there were only a handful of these imported by John Morris of Salford, and I am delighted that this example will be restored. Seeing this old lady brings back many fond memories of EHN118, sitting in its rather narrow bay at the old Borough Road fire station, driving through the town on turn outs and even on one occasion seeing it in action at the Tyre House fire - which was a five or six pump job!

Added by Rob Johnson on 19 May 2025.

This same long wheelbase Dennis chassis was used during WWII to mount several Merryweather ladders. Others were installed on Leyland chassis, which in the prewar years were typically used to mount Metz ladders. During the Blitz, LFB used a number of Metz and Magirus ladders which had been bought in the thirties as well as British Merryweather examples, but of course none of the imports came in after 1939. Several, including one of the Magirus ladders, were destroyed during the Blitz.

Added by Rob Johnson on 22 May 2025.

The Ajax badged wooden 50 foot fire escape ladder carried on Darlington’s Dennis F12 pump escape was also badged “John Morris Salford”. I am not sure if it was actually manufactured by Morris or whether it was simply supplied by the firm.

Ed: I believe John Morris manufactured escapes.

Added by Rob Johnson on 26 May 2025.

Yes, this is confirmed by the wonderful historic document which is on the new John Morris page you created. As far as I know, there were three manufacturers of wheeled escapes in Britain in the fifties. Merryweather, John Morris (Ajax) and Bailey, although I know nothing about Bailey. I vaguely remember these being referred to in the Manual of Firemsnship volume two.

Added by Rob Johnson on 01 June 2025.

Please add your comments about this picture using the form below.

Comments

Your Name

Your email address - this will be shown on the page and will allow the system to notify you of further comments added to this picture.