The horses pulling this fire engine in a turn-of-the-century Gala procession may also have worked for Keighley Corporation Tram-ways which, by an arrangement with the Fire Brigade, could lend out five horses as and when required.
This scarcely suited either department. The Tramways Committee was paid £200 a year but considered itself £21 a year out of pocket. The two tram-drivers detailed to get the horses to the fire station were paid half-a-crown each time.
In 1902 two horses died, one during a fire practice and the other in a bizarre accident. The Edison-Tweedale Biomotograph Company was filming a fire engine dashing out of its station – not attending an actual fire – when it collided with “a line of mourning coaches and a hearse waiting for a funeral party”!
A badly-injured horse lingered for a month before being put down. The Corporation Tramways were paid £50 for the two replacements.
Experience prompted a 1903 instruction to drivers “not to urge the horses on too much at the start when driving to a fire but to commence at a speed that can be maintained for the whole journey”.
The photograph has been supplied by Mr Kevin Seaton, of Shann Lane, Keighley.
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