Totley Fire Station

During the Second World War, Totley had its own large fire brigade. It was situated on the site of what later became Marstone Garage at the corner of Glover Road with Baslow Road. It was officially known as Heatherfield Fire Station 3AX.

On the main road was a brick building with a galvanised iron garage on an unmade Glover Road. There were about 60 firemen and firewomen and eight machines (fire engines and trailers).

Mr Herman Mould was the officer in charge assisted by Ted Nicklin and Lol Hunter. Forty percent of the fire officers were volunteers, the remainder were drafted instead of war service.

The mens quarters were on the ground floor, whilst the officers occupied the upper floor of Ashton House, 96 Baslow Road, the corner shop opposite.

The brigade went into action in Sheffield blitz and, besides the ordinary fire calls, they had to tend to moorland blazes sometimes started by Luftwaffe bombs. These fires had to be put out quickly for they were a good bombing guide for Sheffield. On such occasions they had to call on 300 army personnel plus Chesterfield Fire Brigade and they were out all night, returning to base blackened and weary.

One dinner time they were even strafed by a German plane's machine gun. An additional worry was that the bombs landed near ammunition dumps buried under the moors. Obviously one of the problems was getting water to the fires; in some cases they were able to pump up through great lengths of hose pipe from the streams. At other times they took water from Barbrook Reservoir.