RAISING its rather ugly head in Memories 215 was a square tower which used to be behind Darlington Civic Theatre. The tower cropped up on the aerial view of the town centre which featured on the Memories cover, and, inside, we asked what it was.

Too many people to mention them all knew that it was, of course, the tower attached to Darlington’s first proper fire station. Many thanks to everyone who got in touch.

The fire station opened on Borough Road on June 7, 1905, and the tower was added behind it in the 1930s.

Brigade historian Brett Clayton explains: “Fire station towers had a dual purpose. Firefighters needed somewhere, usually four or five floors in height, to practise pitching ladders – Darlington’s was built after the brigade got a turntable ladder.

“At that time, fire hoses were made of canvas which needed to be dried after use to stop it rotting. The towers were used to hang the 75ft lengths so they could dry – some later towers, like the one at the new station on St Cuthbert’s Way, had fans installed to speed up the drying process. As plastic-based hoses came into use, this practice became outdated.

“During the war, there was another role: in many towns, the towers were used for fire watching duties so that the locations where incendiary bombs had been dropped could be identified and the fire crews directed there straight away while most of the population was still in the air raid shelters.”

In 1972, the fire station was moved to its current premises a hose’s spurt away on the inner ring road, and the tower was cleared.

The old fire station became a carpet showroom and in September, it was announced that Darlington council and local children’s theatre company, Theatre Hullabaloo, were to buy the building and, with Arts Council funding, convert it into a 150-seat children’s theatre. There will be a cafe and rehearsal space which will be open to the wider community. The project will cost £2.35m and although much of the fire station will be demolished, the distinctive 1905 facade will remain.

 

The Northern Echo:

AFTER ladder practice, hose-drying and fire-watching comes a fourth purpose for the tower: a good place to have your photo taken.

Keith Chisman’s father, Arthur, is on this group shot of Darlington firemen which was taken around the time of the Second World War.

Arthur served for ten years from 1936, and was given a fireman’s house in Melland Street, almost opposite the station. Keith remembers that in his childhood there were 16 firemen and their families living in Melland Street, eight in Sanderson Street and 12 in Borough Road.

“They had alarm bells in their properties, and when they rang, you’d see all the on-duty firemen running down the street to the station, putting on their clothes as they went,” says Keith.

Melland Street must have been a very noisy place to live 60 years ago. The natural drop of the land from the railway down to Melland Street – this area was once called Hermitage Hill – allowed coal to be unloaded from the sidings beside the mainline and dropped down into horsedrawn carts for local delivery. Ten horses were stabled on an upper deck at the coal depot, and Keith remembers that their day began at 5.30am, and that their carts had wooden wheels with metal rims – they kicked up a cacophony loud enough to wake anyone.

Just beneath the depot was the Co-operative dairy. Although milk deliveries began at an early hour, they were not as noisy as the coal carts. They went out on electric milk floats, which crawled home at night, their batteries almost spent.

CLICK HERE for more photos of old Darlington

WHEN the East Coast Mainline was built in the 1840s, Hermitage Hill was an even noisier place. Telegraph wires ran along the tracks from London and so Darlington was connected to the Greenwich Observatory. Using information from the Observatory, at precisely noon every Monday, a gun on Hermitage Hill fired so that the townspeople could put their clocks and watches right.

 

The Northern Echo:

FROM the top of the tower we looked down on to St Hilda’s Church, which was built in 1888 on top of Richard Child’s tannery and glue factory. In fact, the whole area to the right of the church, as the photographer, looked had once been a series of stinky tanneries – the animal skins were scrubbed with urine and then immersed in a tanning solution made from oak bark for months on end.

Two hundred years ago, Darlington had a reputation as a prolific leather manufacturer – its chamois was much sought after – although by 100 years ago, the industry had died out, leaving its buildings behind.

“The terrace to the right of the church was known as Bulmer’s Yard, and these were originally tanners’ cottages, accessed via an arch alongside a shop on Parkgate,” wrires P Tarn.

“In 1914, the shop and cottages were purchased by Ernest Alfred Anelay, who used the shop for his cycle business. In 1935, the cottages were declared unfit for human habitation, and Mr Anelay converted them into workshops, like a stove enamelling plant, and stores, as his business had grown to include the building and refurbishment of cycle frames. It became quite famous nationally, known as Anelay's No1 Record Cycle Works.

“Mr Anelay retired in 1953, and the premises were taken on by St Andrew's Motors, of Gallowgate, Newcastle, a dealership for Norton and Vincent Motorcycles. My father John, who had worked for St Andrew's for many years, was given the job of running the Darlington branch.

“The Vincent franchise included NSU bikes, which had just begun to be imported from Germany. In the late 1950s, the NSU Quickly moped was a huge success. NSU cars began to arrive around 1959, and one of the old cottages was opened out to create a car service bay, while the Parkgate shop formed a showroom for around 30 bikes plus a few cars.”

The St Andrew’s business closed after 1966 when the site was compulsorily purchased to be cleared for the inner ring road.