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Preserving the history of the British Fire Service, whilst supporting today's 999 workers
HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED
THE FIRE BRIGADE MUSEUM
We began the Museum project during the COVID19 Pandemic. Unfortunately for us, all grant funding bodies restricted awards to only organisations that met the criteria of being directly impacted by restrictions imposed as measures to prevent the spread of the COVID virus. One of the primary criteria for support was that affected organisations existed before the Pandemic, which unfortunately excluded the Fire Brigade Museum from qualifying for any grant support that in usual times would have been available to us.
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The pressing need to support 999 workers and young people led us to open temporarily in a small industrial unit on the outskirts of Romsey in Hampshire, which was not large enough to house the entire collection. We began to support 999 workers and saw an increase those attending the museum for support with a chat around our Mess room table. We also began supporting affected young people through part time employment and work experience opportunities.
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Continuing inability to access grant funding and competing financial strains as a result of the Pandemic led us to exist on a hand to mouth basis, unable to develop as we had planned to.
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In April 2023, the agreement on the premises occupied by the Museum came to an end. It was determined by the Museum's Trustees that given the building was not sufficient in size to develop the Museum, signing up for a new lease was not financially and operationally best for the Museum. The Museum therefore temporarily closed in April 2023 while an alternative suitable premises was searched for.
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The lack of a physical premises actually became a barrier to grant awards as many awarding bodies would only award to a physical Museum, leaving us in a position where we again could not access grant funding.
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Presently, the Museum's collection is in storage, not available for public enjoyment. Many of our fire engines are stored outside which will inevitably lead to expedited decay, requiring substantial funding to repair. The Museum's funds are being depleted by storage costs and in the coming months, it will be necessary to commence selling artefacts to fund storage of the remaining collection
How you can help us to survive and develop
Sponsorship
You can help us by fundraising on our behalf by holding events, taking part in sponsored race events and many more fundraising possibilities
Businesses are asked to support us financially as part of community or corporate social responsibility commitments
Donate today via our online funding page
Premises
Do you or anyone you know have any commercial space that we could use as a Museum? Alternatively can you assist us with secure undercover storage to store some of our vintage Fire Engines?
Please get in touch via our online contact page or email us at info@firebrigademuseum.com
Volunteering
We are always looking for volunteers who share our vision to preserve history and support our identified groups for a wide range of roles across our project. Affilation to the 999 services is not necessary.
Donations of artefacts and collections
We are always very pleased to receive donations of artefacts relating to the fire service. We have received many donations from families of Firefighters who have passed away, including helmets, medals and documents. The Museum has a robust policy on the protection of donated articles in the event of closure, ensuring that artefacts will always remain with an organisation that shares similar objectives to us, for the public benefit.
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