In 1685 there was a disastrous fire in Market Deeping, with damage to property said to total £2,495. That figure suggests that a large number of buildings were destroyed, and by way of comparison, when the rectory’s “great barley barn” was struck by lightning and burnt down to the ground a few decades later, the cost of rebuilding it with stone was £80.
Such dramatic events were often recorded in parish registers, giving an account of how the fire started and whose premises were involved, but unfortunately Market Deeping’s register for that period hasn’t survived. A plea for financial help, known as a brief, was circulated to other parishes throughout England. This was an established means of raising donations in cases of hardship, and the congregations of at least eight churches responded, from as far away as Cheshire and Kent, though the sums they sent were tiny.
Fire fighting at that time relied upon people carrying buckets of water from wells or a river, which was ineffective in controlling a large blaze, and there was no national fire insurance system.
It wasn’t until 1773 that Market Deeping bought its first fire engine, which would have been similar to the model pictured. The apparatus was pulled along by hand, a leather hose fitted to the top and men on either side pumped the handles to create a jet of water. Luckily, local fires were not common, and the same engine was used for over 100 years. By 1874 it had become neglected and rusty, and was described as useless, compared with Deeping St James’s excellent engine with its efficient brigade. The Market Deeping engine had a moment of glory in 1903, when an International Fire Exhibition was held at Earl’s Court and the “very old manual engine, hoisted on to its old travelling wagon” was put on display in the historic section.
Meanwhile, a fire engine fund had been launched in Market Deeping to buy a replacement, which was delivered in 1899. It was painted red with yellow lettering and was drawn by horses. The photograph shows a well-equipped fireman with hose, buckets and a ladder.
Obtaining sufficient water was still a problem, with no mains supply in the village. Even in 1931 when the brigade fought a fire in outbuildings at the south end of Church Street, they had insufficient length of piping to reach any water. The Peterborough brigade had to be called, but it took them so long to lay pipes to the river that the buildings were destroyed.
A post on our website dated February 2016 shows colour photographs of the 1899 fire engine, taken by Arthur Mills in the 1960s, when it was finally removed from the Town Hall where it had been stored.
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Our April display in the Market Place shows a selection of advertisements from local shops in 1894, including a fishmonger at The Bell Inn, Deeping St James, who had “all kinds of prime fish for dinners”, and a rhyming tobacconist at whose “A1 cigar shop those smokers should stop, whose pouches require re-filling, and if you require, he will suit your desire, and four ounces will sell for a shilling.”
Deepings Heritage 