Newport Fire Brigade purchased its first ever motorised fire engine on this day some 100 years year, on 14th October 1925.
The Stanley Fire Engine was supplied to Newport Town Council by Frank Cheverton, authorised Ford Dealer of Lower St James’ Street, Newport.
Before the purchase of the Ford Stanley, the Borough of Newport had to make do with a Shand Mason fire engine, which could either be pulled by firemen or a team of horses to the location of a fire. This proved highly inconvenient and inefficient when, for example, the Newport Fire Brigade was obliged to haul its Shand Mason up Hunnyhill to deal with a fire at Parkhurst manually when no team of horses were available.
Newport Borough was one of the last on the Isle of Wight to acquire motorised transport for its firefighting service. Shanklin had purchased an adapted Mercedes in 1913 and Ventnor a Leyland Braidwood Fire Engine at a cost of £1,500 in 1923 (£80,000 in today’s values).
The Ford Stanley acquired by Newport was comparatively feeble compared with the powerful and robust engines used by the Ryde, Sandown and Ventnor brigades. This was said to have been a source of humiliation for the Newport firemen.
Before acquiring vehicles using the petrol combustion engine, Sandown, Shanklin and Ryde brigades had all purchased the latest steam-powered engines, but the Newport Corporation was too committed to economy to do so.
