MERRYWEATHER STEAM FIRE ENGINE No 2354
The engine is believed to have been made in 1905 (Engine No 2351 is known to have been made in 1905 ). Although Merryweathers still exist, t heir London factory, at 49 Greenwich Road, London SE, was hit by a flying bomb on 24/25 June 1944 & most records were lost.The early history of the engine is vague. The dealer in Kent said that it came from a Norfolk stately home. The Chesterford film, made in the 50s/60s, stated that it was bought by Lord Howard de Walden of Audley End. However, the catalogue entry for Cheffins sale in April 2002 was as follows:
Description: MERRYWEATHER (LONDON) LTD. First Grand Prize COUNTRY HOUSE STEAM FIRE PUMP Works No. 2354. Original brass lagged boiler and chimney stack, fire pump and motion, all mounted on an iron framed two wheel hand trolley. Originally new to Lord Inchcape at Chesterford Park, Nr. Saffron Walden and latterly at Kings Mill, Great Chesterford. In attendance at a major fire which destroyed much of the centre of Little Chesterford village in 1914 (illustrated)
Lord Inchcape sold Chesterford Park in 1916 & the sale catalogue includes the following:
In Enclosure No. 84 is a Corrugated and Weather Boarded set of Buildings on Brick Foundations consisting of:- Smithy with Forge, Oil Store,
Well House, fitted with Three-cylinder Pump, Engine House with 10-h.p. Hornsby Oil Engine, Dynamo, Two Cooling Tanks, Switchboard and Shafting, Cell Room with
emergency Installation of Cells, new Engine House with Three-cylinder Horizontal Pump by Merryweather, 12-h.p. Oil Engine by R. Hornsby & Sons, Ltd., Dynamo, Two
Cooling Tanks, and Loft over, Patent Silencer and Switchboard, new Cell Room of Cells. The 160-volt Electric Light Plant has only been installed about two years.
which suggests that the fire engine was made redundant with the installation of the new pump, explaining the fact that the engine was less than 10 years old when sold.
By 1914, the engine had been acquired by Kings Flour Mill at Great Chesterford, from where it was bought to help fight the Great Fire of Little Chesterford on April 7th 1914. During it's working life at Kings Mill, it was never called on to fight a fire at the mill, but it was used regularly to wash out the boilers supplying the steam engines which powered the mill ( this information was given by the late Bill Mansfield, one of the fire engine crew at Kings Mill during it's working life, who sadly died in March 2014, aged 96, before he could see the engine back in steam) .
Bill Mansfield ( the tall one in the middle ) and the fire crew of Kings Mill, pulling the engine ( but note the rope on the left...)
The engine taking part in the procession celebrating the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977
The present owner was told of it's existence & a visit to the dealer during an open day on New Year's Day, 2010 found the engine looking sad & unloved in a barn. Repeated attempts to buy the engine finally met with success in May 2013.
Once home, the engine was stripped & the boiler split. The boiler inspector checked the boiler & declared the boiler usable, subject to a list of repairs, albeit at a reduced working pressure of 80 p.s.i. ( originally it was most likely to have operated at 100 or 120 p.s.i.). After the list of repairs had been carried out & the boiler tubes re-sealed ( after many attempts!), the engine was re-assembled & the boiler inspector returned in October that year. A hydraulic test was successfully carried out at 120 p.s.i. & the fire was lit & steam raised for the first time in probably 50 years ( taking 10 minutes to reach working pressure!). A successful steam test was then carried out & the engine received it's first boiler test certificate.
It's first public outing in steam was at the event commemorating the centenary of the Great Fire of Little Chesterford .
Note the sparks thrown out of the chimney about 35 seconds into the video. It was said that this type of engine started more fires than they put out...