This is a photograph of the Merryweather Steam Fire Engine
which arrived in St Andrews in 1901. It was given to the town by Major Donald
Lindsay Carnegie who lived in Playfair Terrace and died in 1911. A
demonstration of the new Pump was held at the Bruce Embankment on the 1st
of June 1901. Dignitaries such as Dean of Guild Linskill, Fire Brigade
Convenor, Provost Ritchie Welch and Major Carnegie were part of a very large
crowd.
The steam Fire Engine was horse-drawn. The two black horses,
stabled at the Wm. Johnston’s Livery Stables in Market Street, were also used
at funerals. The firemen had to sit or stand on the machine and had to sit or
stand on the machine and had to hang on. When the horses were speeding to a
fire, accidents could happen and men were injured.
At a fire, steam was used to make the pump work. A
remarkably heavy pressure of water was produced. It had to be fed with the coal
and there always had to be water in the boiler. On one occasion the Town
Council decided to kill two birds with one stone by giving a fire fighting
demonstration at the Bruce Embankment, at the same time spraying the recently
constructed putting green with salt water pumped from the burn to kill the
worms on the green!
The fire engine was kept in the Fire Station at the back of
Holy Trinity Church (now public conveniences). It served St Andrews and East
Fife until 1920.
This fire engine seems very primitive to us today, but it
was a big improvement on what had gone before. Originally fire had been fought
with fire bucket. In 1834 St Andrews Town Council bought an 8 Man Manual Pump,
second hand. It had to be man handled to a fire. It had no means of using
horsepower. In 1864 money was raised to buy a new fire engine. It was an 8 Man
Manual Pump, but with improvements- water tank canvas instead of heavy wood,
drawn by horses, equipment included four 6ft ladders and it had a plentiful
supply of buckets.
When the Merryweather Fire Engine was made redundant in
1921, it was put in the Town Stone in Abbey Court. It was damaged when on loan
to students for the Charities Procession in 1949. The boiler fire was lit,
without water and the steam pipes were damaged. Later it was moved to the Fire
Service workshop at Methie where it was brought back to its former glory.
It went on show at various events and was the centre piece
at a Vintage Vehicle rally at Craigtoun Park in 1991.
I understand that at a later date Fife Fire and Rescue
Service gave it to Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Service Museum in Greenock, on
permanent loan. While in their care, they were transporting it to an event when
it fell off the vehicle which was carrying it and was smashed, falling on one
of its big wheels. Ian Grant, Wheelwright and Carpenter, Pitscottie, made a new
wheel for it and restores the engine as far as possible.
