Leyland fire engine, Stafford

Description:This fire engine is a Leyland FT4A Pump Escape, registration JRE 294. It was delivered to the Stafford Borough Fire Brigade in December 1939 and was christened "Eveline” after the Mayoress, Councillor Mrs Eveline Joynes, in front of a large crowd at a public ceremony held in Stafford’s Market Square on New Year’s Day 1940. It remained on duty at Stafford Fire Station at least until 1950.

The Fire Brigades Act 1938 established that the councils of all county boroughs and county districts became fire authorities, and this included Stafford Borough (Stafford being split into Stafford Borough and Stafford Urban Councils), who responded promptly to place an order with Leyland Motors Ltd of Leyland, Lancashire, for a new Leyland FT4A Pump Escape firefighting appliance. Construction of “Eveline” began at the specialist Leyland Motors’ chassis plant, a former aircraft factory that Leyland Motors had leased from the Hawker Aircraft Company in Kingston upon Thames before being transported to Leyland’s Chorley Works, where the bodywork, pumps and “Ajax” escape ladders, manufactured by nearby experts, John Morris and Sons of Salford, were added.

“Eveline” is a unique and historically significant vehicle, being the only Leyland FT4A Pump Escape appliance to have been built with Leyland’s “open cross seater” style of bodywork, built to Leyland’s General Drawing No. 199383.