Fire Engine House, Elm

History of the Fire Engine House

Listed Building

It is recorded that Elm possessed a parish fire engine in 1834, and it is likely that Elm Fire Engine House (dated 1847), may have replaced an earlier engine house in the village. Purpose built in 1847, the engine house accommodated a horse-drawn, hand pumped appliance. From the 1850s, the first reliable steam powered appliances were adopted by brigades, and the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Act of 1865 saw the increase of fire stations in the capital and throughout the country. Elm Fire Engine House was requisitioned as a storage facility by the Elm Home Guard and War Office during the Second World War, and Elm Parish was paid compensation for its war time use. (Historic England)