This small locker is near the Lower Ferry. Prior to the formation of the National Fire Service in 1941 responsibility for the provision of Fire Services in England and Wales was often discharged by the lowest rung of local government - the Parish Council. I believe that there were around 1,000 fire services in England alone when the Second World War started in 1939. (An Auxiliary Fire Service was created in 1938 to provide co-ordinated organisation and training for the various very localised fire services as part of the preparations for the possibility of the War which eventually started on Sunday, 3rd September 1939.) The Fire Services Act 1947 disbanded the National Fire Service and placed the responsibility for Fire Services on County Councils and County Borough Corporations in England and Wales. In 1974 there was a further re-organisation when the present day English and Welsh Fire Services came into being. In Scotland the fire service was organised on a more centralised scale in that prior to the National Fire Service - the Burgh Councils and County Councils ran the fire service. (The world's first modern ratepayer funded fire service was formed in the final quarter of the 18th century in Edinburgh. Glasgow followed with its own ratepayer funded fire service in 1809.) In Scotland The Fire Services Act 1947 created a series of Joint County Fire Boards where a few counties shared the same fire service. Examples of this being that Ayrshire, Wigtownshire, Kirkcudbrightshire and Dumfriesshire were served by South Western Area Fire Service. Whilst West Lothian, Midlothian, East Lothian, Berwickshire, Selkirkshire, Peeblesshire, Roxburghshire and the County of the City of Edinburgh were served by South Eastern Area Fire Service ~ rather than individual Fire Services being operated.) I think that the only examples of single area fire services in Scotland were Renfrewshire, Lanarkshire, City of Dundee and the City of Glasgow which maintained their own fire brigade. In 1975 there was a further more dramatic re-organisation when Scotland went over to the larger area regional fire services that still exist today.

Here's my latest Code 3 Project, a brilliant little model of DK05 HBF. otherwise known as '1343', a Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service St. Anne Street-based Appliance. The model is an Oxford Diecast miniture, which as usual, I have converted into something a little different. It's undergone a few changes, most of which have been the re-touching of bodywork from white to red and black, and the addition of MFRS Crests and numbers. All in all, I'm pretty chuffed with how it's turned out. Soon to come: 1:43 Mersey Tunnels Police Land Rover Discovery (probably by tomorrow night if I get my arse into gear) 1:43 Merseyside Police Vauxhall Vectra Estate ARV