A NOTABLE episode in the history of the town’s fire brigade was in1892 when they tried to ‘put out the moon’.
They arrived at the top of Hall’s Hill after being summoned by a group of men who had been imbibing generously at a local hostelry and saw what they thought was a fire.
They trained their hoses on it with no effect. Then one of them looked behind the hedge to discover it was the moon.
This led to the nickname Grantham Toms (the equivalent of “right Charlies”) and the event was commemorated in this postcard as well as the brigade’s own Christmas Card.
And for an encore, in 1923 they attended a call out on Wharf Road. This time it was the flames of the blast furnace at the Western Engineering Company which deceived them.
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