Public Hall fire bell tracked down

Earlier this month, Audlem Online reported that the Public Hall's garage doors have now been finished in "fire engine red" to restore the colour to how the doors were from 1905, when the garage became the home of Audlem's fire engine. Originally it was a horse-drawn fire engine that was kept there, called 'Jubilee', the name commemorating Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee in 1897. In fact the original sleepers on which the wheels of the engine rested are still in situ in the garage. The horses were kept in the stables at the nearby Crown Hotel.

Public Hall Chairman, Geoff Stretch can remember as a young boy looking across the road to the red doors from his house. His last recollection of the fire service being there is seeing Tim Northen running across Cheshire Street from the butcher's shop and pulling the rope to ring the bell in order to call out the firemen.

Audlem Online's story mentioned that the search is continuing for that bell so that it can be put back in its original place on the outside of the Hall. We have received a number of messages confirming that the original bell is still in the village. The Public Hall committee will, we understand, discuss the next step of approaching the family in possession of the bell and, hopefully, eventually restoring it to the Public Hall.

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