Fireground to celebrate 90 years since opening of Maclure Road fire station with open day

Rochdale’s museum of firefighting – Fireground – is celebrating 90 years since the opening of the Maclure Road fire station building this weekend, with a special open day and a “meet the artist” event this Saturday (29 April).

Nine years after its closure as a working fire station, the Rochdale landmark building is still going strong as the home of Fireground Museum.

To mark the occasion, a special gathering of old and new fire engines from around the region will join Fireground’s own fleet of more than 20 historic emergency vehicles, and show a picture display of Maclure Road through the ages.

At the same time, the museum’s resident artist, Victoria Smith, will be displaying her work and giving talks to visitors about her project entitled “Red Light – the story of photography in the fire service.”

 

 

Victoria, from Hull, is a photographer, artist and graduate of Manchester School of Art and has spent the past few weeks exploring the museum’s archives and interviewing former firefighters to discover the roles of photography and illustration in the fire service.

From training resources and product advertising, to forensic and investigation work and the recording of personnel or equipment, there has long been a need to photograph events as they happen.

Victoria has found a wealth of original material at Fireground, from glass slides, film negatives, photographic prints and moving images covering more than 100 years, and has used her talents to produce original works of art showing a variety of subjects and media.

The fire engine gathering on the museum car park, and Victoria’s talks, are free of charge; normal charges apply to enter the museum for the other displays.

The artist placement forms part of the museum’s National Lottery-funded redevelopment project at the town’s former fire station on Saturday 29 April.

Opening hours for the upcoming Coronation weekend will be as follows:

• Thursday 4 May – Open 10am - 4pm
• Friday 5 May – Open 10am - 4pm
• Saturday 6 May – Closed
• Sunday 7 May – Closed
• Monday 8 May – Closed