Fire stations

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Description

The original Fire Station was located at the south-west corner of the property which eventually became the City Library in Free School Lane. Little is known about it, but its layout will be of considerable interest. It would be helpful to know its capacity and whether or not the station offered fire-fighters other facilities beside garaging. Was there any accommodation on the premises for example? Partly because the police also served as firemen, the fire brigade had been established next to the Police Station at the Sessions House since at least the 1880s (Hill 1974, 221; RCHME 1997) and the city purchased its first steam-powered water pump in 1882 (Wright 1982, 233). The former fire station of 1906, where this pump was housed, giving on to Monks Road (now partly used as Training Office, Lincoln College - Herridge 1999, No.5020) is an important survival of a potentially rare category of building nationally. Yet Lincoln has two such early buildings - the other is the former Fire Station at 39, Church Lane (Herridge 1999, No.5043). The latter is both older (datestone of 1880) and more elaborate than the Monks Road example, although it is now in domestic use. Both buildings should preserve evidence in their fabric for arrangements for horse-drawn emergency vehicles, as the city brigade did not invest in a motor fire engine (a Dennis) until 1910 (Wright 1982, 233). Furthermore, both buildings should preserve interesting evidence for the changes brought about by the change in power sources. Both buildings should be subject to recording programmes during the course of repair and alteration.

LARA Boundaries

The RAZ components are mapped following the sites' boundaries depicted on the 1887 O.S. map, and including a 10m wide extension on each side to accommodate buried features not mapped.