Air Raid Siren, Blyth Fire Station

[Yossarian]

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 

[KGarrad]

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.

[TriciaK]

I think the siren was used at Blyth Shipyard - before 1967 when it closed - when the shifts changed.
I could be wrong.

[c-side]

Different siren, I think.  I can remember both

[emmadog]

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. 

[TriciaK]

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.

[Yossarian]

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 

[Yossarian]

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.

[c-side]

It took me a while to find it but, yes, that looks like a siren on the top of the tower

Christine