The Wokingham Fire Brigade thundering out of their home in the Town Hall
By Jim Bell (this article first appeared in the Wokingham Paper 24th April 2015)
When I first started to research the local history of Wokingham I had been puzzled as to why a fire engine had been stored in the Town Hall many years before the Volunteer Fire Brigade was formed in 1876. The new Town Hall which opened in 1860, accommodated the local police force, a courtroom, cells, a savings bank, but no fire brigade. So what was a fire engine doing there? It was only when I began to study the fire fighters of Wokingham that I discovered it was the police themselves who were the fire fighters.
If the police were meant to catch criminals, why were they responsible for fighting fires at the same time? The answer points to Wokingham’s rather dark past. According to the notes of historian, Arthur T. Heelas, Wokingham’s first fire-fighting service was formed at a public meeting held in the old Wokingham Town Hall on November 19th 1830. The magistrates meeting resolved:
“…on the motion of the Marquess of Downshire, and seconded by Robert Palmer, Esq M.P. for Berkshire, that the alarm created by the acts of base and lawless incendiaries in the neighbourhood districts render it highly desirable that an association be immediately formed with a view to the prevention of the acts by vigilance and firmness, having at the same time the fullest confidence in the good order which has at all times characterized the labouring classes of this neighbourhood.”
The police needed a fire engine to put out the fires from the regular acts of arson which were taking place around the neighbourhood and the perpetrators of these fires would dealt with by acts of vigilance and firmness. To deal with these arsonists, the police needed help and therefore on the motion of Sir John Walsh:
The earliest picture of the Wokingham Fire Service
“It was further resolved that the Magistrates, Gentlemen and landholders should open lists in their respective Parishes of all Householders willing to be sworn and serve as Special Constables in aid of the Civil Power within the Forest Division”.
The number of sworn-in special constables in each parish varied from five in Barkham to over a hundred in Wokingham town. Hurst and Ruscombe had ninety, which included thirty five mounted constables and Wargrave had eighty four, which included thirty four mounted. Wokingham wide, this amounted to over 500 specials.
The Specials had to watch and guard farming premises day and night with the utmost vigilance and Wokingham was the centre of communications for all purposes of the Association, with meetings held in the Rose Inn. Each parish having arranged its own constabulary force, acted in conjunction with each other and two or more persons chosen by the men themselves, were appointed superintendents in each parish. Buckets were provided and to be ready at all times, together with any other means of extinguishing fires.
The policing activities of these special constables appear to have been so effective that, according to records, there was very little trouble from then onwards.
The above photos are taken from a book ‘Wokingham in Old Photographs’ by the Mayor of Wokingham, Bob Wyatt. It can either be found online or at Bookends, in Peach Street, Wokingham. Thanks also go to the continued use of the Goatley Collection (in honour of Ken and Edna Goatley).