Kintbury's ancient fire engine is safe and well

Machine dates back to 1786

FOUND: One ancient fire engine from Kintbury.

Mary Hassell, of Oaken Grove, Newbury, wanted to know what had happened to the historic machine and asked the Newbury Weekly News to help find it.

The wooden tender, which used to be pulled manually or by horse, was presented to the village in 1786, in green and red livery, and elderly Kintbury residents once recalled the old engine being paraded around the village during the 1918 First World War victory celebrations.

It obviously needed some attention, because the churchwarden’s accounts for Kintbury St Mary’s Church contain the following entry for 1799: “Paid William Adams for mending the guts of the ingin (sic): one pound and seven shillings.”

The old engine emerged again in the 1930s on the occasion of King George’s silver jubilee and subsequently in village carnivals.

For many years it was stored in the outbuildings of St Mary’s School but was moved to Shaw House in Newbury during the 1960s.

There it remained for many years and the story almost ended there – during a clearout, someone nearly sent it to a scrap dealer, not realising its historical significance.

Fortunately, the late Newbury plumber Peter Hassel saw it, struck a deal and became the new owner.

It was then moved to the museum in Newbury to await restoration.

In 1994, the Newbury Weekly News reported how it was paraded through the village once more during a street fair.

There the trail apparently went cold.

But West Berkshire Museum manager Victoria Barlow said this week: “We keep it safely stored on a supportive trolley at our large object store. It’s a manual fire engine with leather hoses.

“It would appear that water for the engine had to be brought in buckets and placed in the tank in the bottom part.

“The handles were then pumped up and down to force the water through the hoses so it could be directed at the fire.

“It was presented to the parish of Kintbury in 1786 by Elizabeth Dixon and traces of her family crest can still be seen on the engine.”

She added: “It came to the museum in 1957 via a Mr Hassell who bought it from a scrap dealer.

“We don’t know what had happened to it before that. It obviously had a bit of a hard life as its lost nearly all of its paint and is pretty fragile these days.”