Fire service is family affair for great-grandmother

Alice with her grandson Firefighter John Ogden

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Today, Greater Manchester's fire stations are at the heart of the communities they serve - but this sense of community spirit is by no means a new thing.

Great-grandmother Alice Tetlow has many fond memories of her local fire station in Heywood where she grew up - a station that was a vital part of the community and a home to local families.

Her stories came to light when she turned up at a fire station open day with her grandson who works as a firefighter for the Service - and now she's decided to share her memories of Heywood Fire Station and it's role within the local community.

Alice was actually born on the fire station which was located where Heywood Market is now, surrounded by family cottages on York Street and Hartley Street where the firemen lived with their families.

It was just life as they knew it then - everyone got on with their daily lives and when an incident happened they dealt with it, even if that meant the whole street had to be woken in the middle of the night.

"We used to have a big bell at the top of the stairs and it would ring at any time of the night if there was a fire," Alice said. "It would wake all of us up then the firemen would run out to the fire engine and get dressed on their way.

"They didn't have shifts like they do now - they were just working all the time and would have to go out at any time of the day or night. They had one day off a week but they were always there."

Alice's grandfather James Halstead Whittaker was born in November 1866 and went on to become a fireman at Heywood Fire Brigade as it was then.

There wasn't a separate ambulance service in those days - the fire and ambulance services were combined and run by the local council, so firefighters were trained in first-aid too, just like they are today.

It was a varied job back then and the firefighters were also given the job of lighting the gas lamps in the street with lighting up sticks before going round to blow them all out.

In February 1895, Alice's father George Whittaker was born on the fire station at Heywood where James lived with her grandmother.

George, who married Sarah Whittaker, followed in his father's footsteps and he too became a fireman.

There was also a time for many years where father and son, James and George, worked together on the fire station - something that's highly unusual today.

Alice was born in 1920 and inevitably, her father's job meant that the family spent much of their time on the fire station which formed many of Alice's childhood memories.

"We thought it was great living on the fire station," said Alice. "Me and my friends would dance around the maypoles and everyone would come watching us. It was great just having a dad that was a fireman, it made me feel proud.

"It was an open door at our house - the firemen would all come in and stand with their backs to the fire to warm up, probably because ours was one of the bigger houses.

"Mum used to wash the blankets from the ambulances too - we were like one big happy family.

"But we couldn't go on any family holidays or trips unless Dad booked leave because the firemen were on call 24 hours a day every day and there were nobody else to cover.

"Some of the firemen would go across the road to the pub sometimes for a beer and you could hear the bell ring from there so they could go straight out if it rang, and every now and again my mum and dad went to the pictures but that was it really."

One dreadful incident that sticks in Alice's mind was the death of fire volunteer Patrick (Paddy) Kelly who lost his life while helping to fight a fire at Yates Duxbury's mill on June 17, 1934.

It was a tragedy that shook all the local fire brigades and the Heywood community, in particular George Whittaker who was attending the incident at the time.

Paddy was struck by falling bales of paper after a fire broke out in the pulp wood warehouse of the mill in Heap Bridge.

Around 4,000 tons of pulp burned and smouldered for several days - causing injuries to four other men and around £50,000-worth of damage.

Alice said: "Paddy wasn't a fireman but he was like a volunteer. He'd just jump in the fire engine with them whenever they went out to a job or he'd follow them and make his own way there. It was just accepted back then - he was like an unofficial firefighter.
"Dad was stood near Paddy when the bale fell on him and killed him. I was 14 at the time and I remember it was a horrible time for all of us.

"Dad had booked annual leave so we were going to have a holiday in Blackpool but when the incident happened the chiefs announced that all leave was cancelled so we couldn't go."

The fire was a major news story and the inquest, which was held shortly afterwards, exposed some issues within the management of the Heywood Fire Brigade.

However, the coroner did commend the actions of the Bolton and Bury Fire Brigade chief officers before returning a verdict of misadventure in relation to Paddy's death.

After the Duxbury fire, life continued as usual for Alice and she continued to work in a cotton mill.

At the age of 21 she married George Tetlow in 1941 shortly after which he went to war, leaving Alice living in the fire station cottages with her parents. It was only when George returned from Burma in November 1945 that the couple got their first house together in Buckley Street.

Alice and George then had two girls together, Barbara and Lynn, and because female firefighters weren't heard of then, there was no chance that the firefighting 'bug' would be passed down to another generation.

But when Barbara's son John Ogden was born, the family tradition was reborn when he became a firefighter on Red Watch at Heywood Fire Station as it's known today - part of Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service.

John said: "I always wanted to be a firefighter, not just because of the family history but because I always liked working as part of a team and liked getting out doors. Every day is different and that's what I like about the job.

John started off his working life as a prison officer because he couldn't get into the fire service initially. After three attempts, he was finally given the chance to follow in his great-grandfather's and great-great-grandfather's footsteps when he joined GMFRS in 2002.

He later moved to Amber Watch and is now on Greens and he's married with a one-year-old daughter Ella.

"I think things are really different now," he said. "We have more specialisms as a fire service now for dealing with more of a variety of jobs than they did then, like the Water Incident Unit which GMFRS has two of - one at Heywood and one at Eccles.

"We also do a lot more community fire safety and prevention work now. Even in the ten years I have been here we have seen fewer fires and incidents because of the prevention work we do."

So will the tradition be carried on to another generation?

"There are more female firefighters these days," John said. "But I don't have any aspirations for Ella to go into the fire service!"