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Mitchells & Butlers Fire Brigade

JuliaP

proper brummie kid
Anyone else remember the M&B Fire Brigade at the brewery in Cape Hill, Smethwick. Used to live in Raglan Road as a child and was traumatised by sight of fire engines almost every Friday for a practice. The clanging bell reminded me of Keystone Cops movies, lol! There was something called the "bull" that used to go off at the end of shift. If the tone was different it meant there was a fire.
 
Thanks! The 1950s one is just how I remember them. Given me a cold shiver now, after 55 years away from the area.
 
I remember the bull, I didn't know that if the sound was different it meant fire.
(Off topic! The Doctor's Surgery moved to Raglan Road from Cape Hill.)
rosie.
 
A wartime Fordson 7V on the left, and a late thirties Leyland, possibly a Cub, on the right. The centre vehicle is another Leyland, I think, but possibly 1920s. There are experts on fire appliance coachwork, but regrettably not me. Trying to decipher the number plate on the right hand machine, DHA 555 would fit both the age and the location, but is that what the plate says?

It‘s interesting that the two Leyland have wartime white edgings to their coachwork, but the Fordson doesn’t, suggesting a post war purchase and a repaint job, since most of the pictures of that type of vehicle, both Ford and Bedford chassis that I have seen were in battleship grey presumably as a wartime economy measure.

The horses in the older picture seem to be well looked after, I wonder if they were kept in reserve for the fire brigade, or took their turn delivering beer? Maybe they are a bit too streamlined for pulling a dray, be like hitching a Ferrari to a haywain.
 
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