Hadleigh Fire Brigade Exercises in 1955

Alice Chafer's Husband was a Hadleigh Fireman

I hope this has not been seen before? Alice Chafer, one-time usherette at the long since silenced Hadleigh Kingsway Cinema, is a mine of information with a fund of stories. The Fire Station photographs were taken in 1955. As Alice’s husband Harry was the lightest, he is the one being rescued from the Fire Tower.

Hadleigh Fireman Harry Chafer
Alice Chafer
Hadleigh Fire Station 1955
Alice Chafer
Hadleigh Fire Station Training Exercise 1955
Alice Chafer
Training Exercise 1955
Alice Chafer
Rescue Exercise
Alice Chafer
The one to be 'rescued' is Harry Chafer
Alice Chafer
Hadleigh Firemen building a pond. Can anybody enlarge on this information?
Alice Chafer

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  • In 1955, Diane (then Watts) was about 8 years old and the previous year had delivered the regular daily order of 2 bloomers a day from the Hadleigh Bakery (her family’s business) across the road in the High Street.
    As a treat, she had been allowed to slide down the fireman’s pole (which is still in place now, immediately outside the Archive office).

    By Terry B (14/07/2018)
  • The bungalows at the back I assume to be in Florence Gardens (now a Conservation Area). Florence Close had yet to be built. The old Tithe Map shows there was a pond here before 1847, but it was almost certainly a natural pond. There was a bigger one right underneath where the Salvation Army Temple now stands. Hadleigh, it seems, had water bubbling up all over the place, judging from the number of ponds in the area. All the more surprising, considering its relatively high position on the A13 escarpment.

    By David Hurrell (11/03/2016)
  • I was interested to see the picture of Hadleigh Firemen working on what was generally known, when I remember it , as the Horse Pond.  This was a stagnant pond used by Horseman after working in the adjacent fields to wash the mud from the hooves, this was before 1939. It was then converted as an Emergency Water Supply hence the fireman doing the work. When completed it was filled with water and a large notice erected saying E W S.

    I lived in Chapel Lane at the time and this was on my route to Hadleigh School we had to walk to school, as the rules were very different in those days. If we were lucky enough to have a bike one was not allowed to ride it to school and leave it in the bike shed unless you lived more than one mile from the school. I would be very interested to know if there is anyone around who remembers The Horse Pond, other than my brother and sister who are older than me. This pond attracted all the local children when the pond froze over in the winter, some of them found that the ice was not thick enough to walk on. I would like to see a picture of what it looks like now.

    (comment received from David Guy)

    By Graham Cook (07/03/2016)
  • Could it be the old fire reservoir being constructed, the one that is now under the little grassed seating area opposite Morrison’s car park and next to the old timber houses, which, I believe, are now part of the Salvation Army complex. The bungalows now behind this area were built after the homes in Chapel Lane and you could see the cart track on the Colony that ran behind our house in Homestead Gardens (55) from the A13. 

    By Peter Smith (03/03/2016)

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