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Lamppost Etching

Phil

Phil

Gone, but not forgotten.
Yes an ordinary c1920's scene of Stratford Rd. Sparkbrook near Kyotts Lake Rd. Though let me draw your attention to the ornate gas lamp on the left of the photo. It has the words Fire Station etched into the glass. I have never seen this before and I cannot think of a fire station in the vicinity, well certainly not in my time in the area some 30 years later.

Can anybody throw any light (no pun) on this lamppost and it's meaning, was this a normal thing or was it something special?

Phil

SparkbrookByKyottsLakeRdOnStratfordRd.jpg
 
A Sparks,

That seems like a possible answer, it's just that I have never seen anything like it before. Thanks for taking the time to answer.

Phil
 
The lamp is a beautiful item; I wonder if any still exist as exhibits in a museum? These lamps would of course show folks where the firehouse was when they needed the fire brigade: most people not having telephones at that time. In smaller towns and places bells with rope pulls fitted in small towers were in used by citizens to summon the help of the volunteer firemen. I guess many places outside Birmingham's boundaries* had similar facilities for summoning help.
*Birmingham's boundaries extended throughout the 20th. century I understand. In very small places, where the horses and fire appliance were kept at a short distance from the town or village centre, often a knock, using a long pole, on the Fire Chiefs bedroom window during the night would be the method of summoning help. In my town, which has doubled its size and population in the last fifty years, did operate, in the late 19th. and early 20th. centuries, such a system until the advent of telecommunications - albeit crude by todays standards. I often think of the wonderful horses who hauled fire pumps and ladders when I drive down the hill from my home. They were kept in a field nearby and were taken to the bottom of the hill to be used as necessary.
 
Does any remember the old Lamp lighters when we had gas lamps, we had them in
Cleeve Road Yardley Wood when I was a lad. Bernard
 
There is mention of a Fire station Kyott,s Lake Road in the 1904 directory it is listed as
Fire Call Station (it was next to the tram garage )

I suspect that they were a phone in a box? there were a number of these in Brum
 
The West Midlands Fire Service training Acadamy in Smethwick has a similar lamp which stood outside the Priory Fire Station in central Birmingham.
 
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