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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Northumberland => Topic started by: Yossarian on Monday 22 September 14 09:40 BST (UK)
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When I was a kid growing up in Cowpen Newtown, close to where Aldi's car park stands today, our street games would sometimes be interrupted by the haunting wail of an air raid siren. This came from the fire station on Union Street, and I'd say it droned on for about a minute. On hearing it, we would troop to the top of Beecher Street in the hope of glimpsing a speeding fire engine tearing along Cowpen Road, blue lights flashing and bell (not siren) sounding.
I'd forgotten all about this until playing Silent Hill with my girlfriend, and a siren sounded in the game. My questions are:
1) Do you remember such a siren?
2) What was its purpose - I suspect it may have called volunteer firemen to action.
3) Was it Blyth's air-raid siren from the war years being put to use?
4) What happened to it - is it still in-situ in preparation for future conflict?
Answers on a postcard ;D
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I, too, lived in a town where the old WW2 Air-Raid siren was re-used as a call for the Fire Brigade!
Until the advent of pagers, anyway.
And, on moving to the Isle of Man, some 20 years ago, I heard the very same thing in Ramsey!
Seems to be a common method of alerting firemen, who always worked locally.
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I think the siren was used at Blyth Shipyard - before 1967 when it closed - when the shifts changed.
I could be wrong.
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Different siren, I think. I can remember both
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Yes it was definitely a different siren. We lived at the bottom of Salisbury Street so heard their siren every working day. As kids we also had to listen out for the siren from the fire station as our neighbour was a full time fireman and when the siren went off he had to jump on his bike and pedal to the fire station.
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I found this - wish I hadn't, it reduced me to tears :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erMO3m0oLvs
Definitely different from the shipyard siren.
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Thanks for your replies everyone. I played that YouTube video - was there ever a more mournful sound than an air raid siren?
As for the shipyard one, which was more of a hooter than a siren if memory serves, my grandparents lived in Beaumont Street and when my grandad (bin wagon driver) went home for lunch, he returned to work when the one o'clock hooter blared from the shipyard. This set my small mind wondering why shipyards needed bin wagons :D
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As it happens, I was looking through the book Blyth Through Time by Gordon Smith and on page 89 there is a photo of Blyth fire station with what appears to be the very siren on top of the tower.
I could be wrang, like.
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It took me a while to find it but, yes, that looks like a siren on the top of the tower
Christine
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Just read your post again - the reason it took me a long time to find is because I didn't notice that you'd put the page number in your post :-\ :-[
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The sirens mentioned are two different ones.
The fire station one was used to alert off duty fireman that they were needed to man the second appliance, should they be out of the homes, after an initial call out for the on duty crew. A bell was installed in the homes of all firemen who were available for a call out. The bell arrangement was used at night of course so as not to awaken the whole town, but it was known for mistakes to be made, much to the annoyance of local residents.
The fire brigade use of the siren ceased when a pager system was introduced however it was still maintained as part of the civil defence system and I think is still in place.
The shipyard had a "hooter" that sounded at 7.25 and 7.30 each morning, and 12.55 and 1.00 in the afternoon as a warning that shifts were about to start. If you failed to be in the gate by the time of the second warning you were locked out and lost time. The time keeper was Mr Farley who enjoyed closing the gate on the stragglers.
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There was a siren above our local police station and I seem to remember it was tested periodically when I grew up in the 60's. Was it not something to do with civil defence and cold war nuclear attack. Was there not a government information film about what to do like hiding under the dining table?
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We called one of those films "Duck and Cover" if you were out on a picnic and the bomb went off you were to get under the checkered picnic blanket to protect yourself.
We still have sirens going off periodically for testing or the real thing - only they are to announce a tornado in the area.
Janis
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Did someone actually get paid to think of the picnic blanket solution ;D
So pleased we don't get tornados in Blyth