Metadata
WORK ID: YFA 2576 (Master Record)
Title | Year | Date |
MORLEY FIRE BRIGADE | 1940 | 1940-01-01 |
Details
Original Format: 16mm Colour: Black & White / Colour Sound: Silent Duration: 15 mins 25 secs Credits: Filmmaker Frank Bradley Subject: Wartime |
Summary During the Second World War, volunteer services played an important part in the defence of the nation. This film features some of the activities and practice exercises of the Morley Fire Brigade, providing a clear picture of the hard work they carried out in order to tackle dangerous situations. |
Description
During the Second World War, volunteer services played an important part in the defence of the nation. This film features some of the activities and practice exercises of the Morley Fire Brigade, providing a clear picture of the hard work they carried out in order to tackle dangerous situations.
Title - Morley 1940 Preparations to meet the destruction of War.
Title - This film hopes to show how the people of Morley have Voluntarily taken u exacting duties of A.R.P. etc. All are confident...
During the Second World War, volunteer services played an important part in the defence of the nation. This film features some of the activities and practice exercises of the Morley Fire Brigade, providing a clear picture of the hard work they carried out in order to tackle dangerous situations.
Title - Morley 1940 Preparations to meet the destruction of War.
Title - This film hopes to show how the people of Morley have Voluntarily taken u exacting duties of A.R.P. etc. All are confident that their help is wanted, their arduous training will not have been in vain. We thank them all now.
Title - "Morley Fire Services" The regular brigade & A.F.S. train to fight the Blitz-Krieg!
The film opens with a panning shot of the engines at the fire house. Some of the men clean one of the engines.
Title - AFS Physical jerks & games keep the full time men in trim.
The men are indoors exercising and stretching. They are all dressed in white. While most of the men are exercising, a few others are playing snooker. Later all the men have a meal in the canteen. They are seated around a square bar, and a man in the middle serves tea. One of the volunteers sounds the whistle, and everyone runs to their posts, ready for action. The men, now dressed in uniform, run down the stairs of the firehouse to the fire engines. Three engines leave the building and drive to the emergency scene.
Title - Water has to be carried to the scene of the fire when mains are burst.
The firemen are on the back of the truck.
Title - Notice how easy the trailer pumps are to handle into position.
The men move the trailer into position. The trailer is on wheels which makes it easy to move. One of the men hooks up a hose, and the water begins to flow, filling up the tank. There is a close-up of the pressure system controls.
Two policemen stand in the middle of the street. One of them holds up a bike, and pedestrians can be seen passing in the background.
The fireman rolls up the hose, and a car with a ladder attached to the top of it drives along the road. Next, the men set up a metal frame which is lined with cloth. They pull out the hoses and put them into the water tank. The firemen then spray the hoses, practicing this procedure in a field.
Title - Morley Fire Brigade. The Regulars also have their big of fun when standing to.
The men sit around a table in the fire house. They are playing a card game and joking around.
Title - Morley Fire Brigade - Fire!
Colour - Through large red doors, men run into the fire house. An engine comes out, and the firemen are standing, holding onto the sides of the engine as it leaves the building.
Title - where's that Fire Sarg?
Two policemen stand near a bike, and as the fire truck approaches, the blaze can be seen through a house window.
B&W - The blaze is now shown in black and white. Children are gathered nearby to watch the volunteers' exercise. One of the men holds a hose as he climbs a ladder propped on the burning building. A group of spectators watch the blaze, and the volunteers try to put out the fire. They attach the hoses and spray the flames. Other houses can be seen in the background.
Title - Inspector Keyworth always shows great interest in A.R.P. Practices.
The Inspector is talking to a man, and there are more shots of the volunteers with fire hoses.
Title - Incendiary bombs being extinguished with spray jet from stirrup pump.
A man, lying flat on the ground, sprays water at the bomb.
Title - Water works staff provide mobile teams to mend burst water mains.
Men arrive in a lorry. The street is full of rubble, and water is shooting out of a burst pipe. The men repair the broken water main.
Title - Burst gas mains are dangerous & have to be dealt with at once.
The men go to fix the gas mains, and they all wear gas masks while doing do. There is a shot of the fixed main followed by some of the men talking to the Inspector.
Title - Demolition Teams - volunteers from the building trades - arrive to make safe damage.
Men in helmets and uniforms arrive at the demolition site. They carry with them a variety of tools and equipment. One of the volunteers uses a blowtorch, and sparks fly as he uses it on a piece of metal.
Title - Causalities being removed to the first aid post.
Men carry an injured person to a stretcher where the person is wrapped in a blanket before being carried away. Women volunteers can be seen as well, and the stretcher is loaded into a back of a truck being used as an ambulance. The film closes with rescuers wearing gas masks and a sign which warns against dangerous gas.
Context
A great behind the scenes look at Morley Fire Brigade in 1940, seen here relaxing with a game of snooker and doing keep fit exercises as well as their fire drill. They are joined in these by their sister Home Front services the ARP (Air Raid Precautions, usually called wardens) and the AFS (Auxiliary Fire Service), with the apparently mandatory schoolboy always looking on.
This film was made by Frank Bradley who served in the First World War and trained air cadets in the Second. He made a...
A great behind the scenes look at Morley Fire Brigade in 1940, seen here relaxing with a game of snooker and doing keep fit exercises as well as their fire drill. They are joined in these by their sister Home Front services the ARP (Air Raid Precautions, usually called wardens) and the AFS (Auxiliary Fire Service), with the apparently mandatory schoolboy always looking on.
This film was made by Frank Bradley who served in the First World War and trained air cadets in the Second. He made a sizeable collection of films from 1940 onwards, including also filming the 108 Squadron and the Air Training Corps during the war. The First World War had already introduced the notion of a 'Home Front', the mobilisation of civilians in support of the war effort. The idea was re-activated in 1938 during the Munich crisis, when the Air Ministry predicted 65,000 casualties a week. At the outbreak of the war the British government ordered a million coffins. Fortunately Morley wasn’t bombed during the war, although several other West Yorkshire towns and cities were. |