When there was a fire before the Second World War in Bishop Auckland, you rang 301. This connected you to the old bus shed in North Bondgate where Nelson, the horsedrawn fire engine, was stabled.

IF there was no fireman in the shed, 301 rang through to the home of the chief volunteer fire officer, William Nixon.

He lived at 5, Silver Street, which backs onto Auckland Castle. A brass plaque on his front door announced that this was the “Fireman’s House”.

Once the call was received, then the fun and games began.

Mr Nixon’s full-time job was as a chauffeur for local GP, Dr Prescott. He had to get home from work, and his sons had go round town raising the other volunteer firemen. Then they had to catch the horses, whose full time jobs were pulling Co-op delivery carts.

“The firemen would practise by washing the windows on Bishop Auckland town hall,” says Stephen Nixon, grandson of William. “When a call came, my uncle Bill would go and knock everybody up and then run up to the horses’ field near the fire station, but the horses would spot him and run to the other side of the field.”

Eventually, when volunteer firemen and pressganged horses were all in the old OK bus shed in North Bondgate, Nelson could race off to the rescue – unless, of course, the fire had already burnt itself out.

As Memories 153 told, the slowness of Nelson’s response became a real issue in the Bishop Auckland area in the late 1930s. It was not because of the efforts of men like William Nixon, but because the local councils only equipped them with the antiquated Nelson.

Nelson used steam power to pump water onto the flames. It was built in 1890 and seems to have come secondhand to Bishop Auckland in 1904.

During the late 1920s, the firemen attempted to motorise it by adapting a Coop motor wagon to haul it, but its shortcomings were shown during a large factory fire in West Auckland in 1938. The blaze was eventually extinguished by the properly equipped Crook Mines Rescue Brigade with Nelson trailing in behind.

The Northern Echo:
Bishop Auckland’s first engine, is now at Beamish Museum. Picture courtesy of Beamish Museum

This – and the outbreak of the Second World War – was the spur for the Bishop brigade to take delivery in 1941 of its first motorised engine – a Dennis Light Four New World Pump, registration EUP 313.

IT was named “The Aclet”

– “aclet” meaning “additional land” (when the Bishop of Durham owned some “aclet” it was the “Bishop’s Aclet Land”

and so, obviously, became Bishop Auckland).

Nelson was often towed behind The Aclet to provide the brigade with additional pumping power.

“In the 1960s, The Aclet served at the Regional Fire Training School at Framwellgate Moor,” says fire historian Brett Clayton.

“In 1972, Nelson and The Aclet were passed to Beamish Museum, along with a former City Of Durham 1939 Leyland Braidwood pump and a 1950 Dennis F12 Pump Escape.

“In the 1990s, the museum decided to concentrate on the period up to 1913 and so the motor appliances were offered for disposal.

The Northern Echo:
Bishop Auckland’s first motorised fire engine, a 1941 Dennis known as The Aclet

“I was successful in being able to rehome the Durham Leyland, which is currently being restored, and The Aclet is with another North- East fire appliance collector.”

Nelson can still be seen at Beamish.