IN BROOK Terrace, on the edge of Darlington’s Denes, there is now just an empty space overlooking a drop down to the wetlands of the Cocker Beck.

On this space in 1943, the “best wartime fire station” was constructed in 16 weeks by ten firemen in their downtown while they were not fighting fires. “Only five of the men were skilled,” said The Northern Echo, rather rudely on opening day.

Perhaps it is a miracle, then, that the fire station stood until the 1990s, used by the local council’s parks department.

As Memories told two weeks ago, when the Second World War broke out, Britain had 1,600 separate fire brigades – almost every town had its own. Plus, from 1938, an Auxiliary Fire Service was formed by volunteers as part of the Civil Defence Service to work alongside the brigades.

In 1941, the National Fire Service (NFS) was formed, to simplify matters. This came about as people’s view of firemen changed: at the start of the war, there were seen as draft dodgers, but as cities were blitzed by the Luftwaffe, fire became a huge danger to civilians.

The view of firemen also changed because there were 80,000 firewomen – nearly a quarter of the NFS’ personnel.

Having simplified matters, the NFS then complicated things. It divided Britain into 13 regions. Each of the regions was divided into Fire Forces. Each of the Fire Forces was divided into divisions. Each of the divisions was sub-divided into sub-stations.

The Northern Region had two Fire Forces: No 1 was based in Gosforth, No 2 in Middlesbrough.

Darlington became the C Division of the No 2 Fire Force, and as well as having 16 sub-stations across the town, its area spread through North Yorkshire to Leyburn.

Each of these stations received an identification number which began with 2C.

For instance, Memories 271 featured pictures men of 2C IX stationed at the former workhouse at East Haven, in Yarm Road, and the new divisional reserve headquarters built in Brook Terrace was given the identifier 2C 1W.

2C 1W was opened on March 17, 1943, by the deputy regional commissioner, Col CJ Pickering. “I consider this to be the finest example of a wartime fire station that I have yet seen,” he said. “Its construction is purely a wartime measure and while it may not be so elaborate as stations we are used to in peacetime, as a utility article it is a credit to all concerned.”

The ten men building it had parked their engines up during construction and had to down tools 15 times to attend an emergency.

At the opening, the mayor of Darlington, Cllr B Jackson, said the town “was proud of the work of its NFS, some of whom had been called long distances to help to fight fires in towns that had suffered air raids”.

The history of the NFS seems desperately unrecorded and incomplete – below is the list of sub-stations that we know about in Darlington. It would be brilliant if anyone could give us any further info on any of them – does anything remain of any of them? And what about beyond Darlington, in places like Bishop Auckland, Barnard Castle and Durham?

Darlington’s NFS sub-stations: Middleton One Row 2C 1T; Hurworth 2C 1U; Barnard Street 2C 1V; Brook Terrace 2C 1W; John Street 2C 1Wa; East Haven, Yarm Road 2C 1X; Webster’s Farm, Whessoe Road 2C 1Y; Borough Road 2C 1Z.

Other 2C sub-stations: Crown Street, Orchard Road, Bondgate, Waverley Terrace, Abbots Ford, Brown’s Sawmills, Darlington Forge on Albert Hill, Railway foundry in Peel Street, and there were engine shelters in Kennel Lane and Mill Lane off Haughton Green.

We are hugely indebted to fire brigade historian Brett Clayton for his help with today’s article.

THE discussion about 2C 1X in Memories 271 naturally led on to talk about East Haven, which was Darlington’s workhouse. A frightening, Gothic building, it opened on June 1, 1870. Its function varied over the years and when it closed – we said in 1974 – it was a geriatric hospital.

“In 1978, it was still be used for geriatric patients,” says Jacqueline Bolton. “I know because I started there in the July and I was getting married in the September so they put my new surname on my uniform.” About the time of her marriage, the patients were dispersed between the old Greenbank hospital and the new Memorial, and East Haven was demolished.

Then Jacqueline takes us back to the railways – to the Richmond branchline. It opened in 1846, branching off the East Coast Mainline at Eryholme Junction, to the south of Hurworth, and ventured through the stations of Moulton, Scorton and Catterick Bridge before arriving at Richmond.

To get there, it had go under several road bridges, and over several level crossings.

The first level crossing after Eryholme Junction was at Dalton Gates; the second one, near the village of North Cowton, was Straggleton Gates, which is where Jacqueline grew up in the early 1960s.

Her father worked as a steam raiser in Darlington – starting the fires in the locomotives so they were ready and steaming when needed. This qualified him for one of the two railway cottages at Straggleton Gates.

“The other was occupied by Jim Partridge,” says Jacqueline. “He was the crossing keeper. When a train was due, he was informed by bells ringing in his house and he would close the gates.

“Our house had no electricity and no sanitation, you cooked on the range and the railway line was only 30 yards from the front door, but it was a very nice little house.”

The Richmond branchline closed on March 3, 1969, and we think the cottages at Straggleton Gates were demolished soon after. Today, there’s just a lump in the lane where the level crossing used to be, but on the west side, there are some tall stone walls with a greenhouse sheltering inside them. There are also some fishermen’s pits which presumably were a railside quarry.