The Somerset Fire Brigade at Hestercombe

‘Every member of staff was required to give one day’s decorating experience – even the chief [W. H. Barrett] – to put the place in order’. (‘How the fire brigade saved a fine building for itself’, Western Daily Press and Times and Mirror, 28 July 1979, p. 3.)

The open spaces surrounding Hestercombe House were formally put under review when the Fire Brigade relocated to the estate in 1954, with a range of options being explored in a bid to utilise the grounds as efficiently as possible. One proposal involved the installation of a tarmacadam drill ground in the Formal Garden which would have covered the Great Plat. This was narrowly rejected by Somerset County Council — purportedly by just one vote.

A second more ambitious scheme, dubbed ‘Somerset Fire Brigade Proposed Specialised Training Courses’ (c.1959), advocated the redevelopment of the open spaces around the mansion to accommodate some 40 new freestanding buildings, most to be located just south of the Formal Garden and the Orangery.

Members of Column 17 of the Somerset Auxiliary Fire Service cooking on outdoor stoves near the entrance to the Hestercombe Stable Block (now the Plant Centre) in the 1950s. The former Portman Chauffeur's Cottage is shown in the background.

Members of the Auxiliary undergoing training in the operation of a bikini raft on Hestercombe's Pear Pond in the Georgian Landscape Garden. The fire engine sitting nearby is a ‘Green Goddess’.

A training exercise taking place near the garage/workshop erected by the Fire Brigade, west of the Stable Block, in around 1957. The timber garage with inspection pits that once housed the Portman automobiles is evident to the left on the site of the present day picnic area.

Christmas was marked each year by a party to which Fire Brigade staffers could bring their families, complete with a visit from Father Christmas who arrived on a Leyland Club Fire Engine packed with presents for the children.

When the Auxiliary was officially disbanded on 28th March 1968, the occasion was marked with a formal ceremony at Hestercombe House, presided over by Chief Fire Officer, A. L. Bullion.

Somerset Auxiliary Fire Service posing on the main staircase of Hestercombe House, around the time the Auxiliary was disbanded on 28th March 1968. Chief Fire Officer, A. L. Bullion, is seated in the second row from the front in the centre.

Partitions were erected in the 1960s at the eastern end of what is now the Column Room Restaurant, opposite the entrance, to create a cloakroom and office for the Station Officer.

The Control Consol with its individual workstations was positioned at the other end, near a large semi-curved map of Somerset that was fixed to the wall. From 1968 to 1984, 14 staff worked from the Portman’s former sitting room in shifts around the clock to deal with emergency ‘999’ calls for the entire county.

A Club Room with bar and dart board (now the Second-hand Bookshop), a billiard room (in the basement), pitch and putt course (Orangery Lawn) and croquet (Tennis Lawn) provided after-hours recreation for staff. ‘Half a beer was normal at lunchtime in the 1970s . . . the whole building was licensed’, recalled former Fire Brigade Engineer, Steve Pike.

By 1975, the Rose Garden, Grey Walk, East and West Rills and inner Plat Borders had been replanted, stonework repairs were underway, and in addition to his part-time assistant, Harry Parks, Head Gardener Wilf Perry (pictured, right) was being supported by a second full-time gardener, Jim Stagg (pictured, left), who had previously worked as a groundsman at County Hall in Taunton.

For many years portrait photographs of retired Chief Fire Officers decorated the walls of the old dining room, a tradition that was temporarily interrupted when Leslie E. Johnson (1972-78) politely declined the honour on the grounds that it might bring about his premature death; two successive Chief Fire Officers, Mr. W. H. Barrett and Mr. A. L. Bullion, had died within a year of having their portraits hung.

Following the move of Fire Control to Room A142 (now ‘Gallery 6’ on the 1st floor) on 1st March 1985 (it remained there until 2012), the Column Room was revamped as a meeting room. The floor was dismantled and then reinforced with a rolled steel joist (RSJ), the two fireplace openings were bricked up and plastered over, new curtains were hung, fresh carpet was laid, and ‘some nice soft furnishings’ were added.

The working week was frequently demanding, as Hestercombe Fire Brigade HQ became the venue for regular inspections, outdoor training exercises, courses on various aspects of firefighting, and a wide variety of meetings, including almost all inter-Fire Brigade meetings in the South West.

On 27th February 1995, Fire Brigade HQ played host to the first of two royal visitors when The Princess Royal officially opened the newly refurbished Control Centre in Room A142, now ‘Gallery 6’, after which she presented long service and good conduct medals to several Fire Brigade staff and inspected various Brigade vehicles.

HRH Prince of Wales followed on 17th May 2002 touring Fire Brigade HQ with Chief Fire Officer Clive Kemp, examining displays about the Brigade’s work with vulnerable groups in the community, and visiting the Formal and Landscape gardens at the invitation of the Hestercombe Gardens Trust.

Only one substantial new build was ever undertaken on the estate by the Fire Brigade, a five-bay prefabricated workshop to garage and maintain special emergency appliances that were on loan from the Home Office for emergency training purposes.

Erected in 1957 at a total cost of £4,325, and modified in 1974 to include an oil store, machine area and covered walkway linking it with the ladder store in the adjacent orangery (now the Bampfylde Hall), the Fire Brigade workshop was demolished in 2004 to make way for the Plant Centre and Marquee Lawn.

Fire Brigade Control in its final location on the 1st floor (now Gallery 6) of Hestercombe House prior to its relocation to service HQ at The Knowle, Clyst St George, Exeter in March 2012. The Brigade’s state-of-the-art telecommunications systems were upgraded in 1994 at a cost of £1 million.