Essex Fire Museum

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22/10/2026

Throwback Thursday: Early Stansted Air Disaster

London Stansted airport owes its origin to the Second World War when it was opened as an Eighth United States Army Airforce (8 USAAF) base on 7 April 1943. On 14 December 1946 it was opened for civilian use when a civilian cargo service began with the Americans still on site. The Americans finally left for home in April 1957. By 1956 Stansted was used for regular trooping flights as was the case on 30 April 1956 when an Avro York (modified WW2 Lancaster bomber) chartered by the Air Ministry attempted to take off en route for Malta - Luqa Airport. Fifty four people were on board including many RAF personnel. Three hundred yards down a temporary runway the aircraft took a violent swing to the right, left the runway at 45 knots and crossed a drain which collapsed its undercarriage. As a result two people died, a four year old girl and a RAF aircraftsman with four seriously injured. A rescue and salvage operation quickly started with the Essex County Fire Brigade and the Stansted Airport Fire Brigade playing significant roles in the operation.

19/10/2026

We attended the National Fire Heritage Network conference / AGM this weekend, hosted by the West Midlands Fire Service (WMFS).
The Fire Heritage Network group were formed in 2004 to "study and preserve Britain's proud fire service history."
The attendees were given some fantastic presentations on museum development and local fire service history. The volunteers and staff at WMFS also hosted a fantastic trip to their newly developed museum located in Aston fire station (the oldest station in the West Midlands - opened in 1924). The team have done and excellent job and it's well worth worth a visit, if you can.
The Essex Fire Museum is very proud to be part of the Fire Heritage Network group and really enjoyed attending the conference. We would like to thank WFMS and their museum volunteers for making us feel so welcome. 👍😀😀👍

14/10/2026

Historical spotlight: Essex Chief Fire Officers

From time to time Facebook will present profiles of Chief Fire Officers of Essex County Fire Brigade and Essex County Fire and Rescue Service.
On 1 April 1948 Essex County Council took over responsibility for the fire service in its area from the National Fire Service (NFS). Prior to that date it had to appoint a Chief Fire Officer (CFO) and a Deputy Chief Fire Officer (DCFO) to lead the new organisation. The county chose two former London Fire Brigade officers; Mr William James Henry Benton as CFO and Mr Cyril Gordon Tobias as DCFO.
Although originally with the LFB, in May 1944 Mr Benton was the NFS Chief Regional Fire Officer, No 4 Eastern Region. In that capacity he was present at a serious fire and explosion in an am******on dump near Saffron Walden where he, “Showed courage and initiative of a high order (and) set an admirable example to all”. He was awarded the OBE.
Mt Tobias had been a District Officer with the LFB on duty during London’s worst air raid on 10/11 May 1941 when he worked continuously for 19 hours, “Showing great coolness, efficiency and exceptional qualities of leadership”. He was awarded a BEM and is cited as an eyewitness in Richard Collier’s 1957 book about the air raid, “The City that wouldn’t die”
Consequently, two exceptionally brave firefighters took command of the new Essex County Fire Brigade.

Photograph sourced from EFM archives.

07/10/2026

We had a nice visit this week from the Royal Naval Association (Rayleigh branch). Our volunteers gave the group a tour of the museum and a talk about the development of firefighting during WW1. Our volunteers were able to highlight the recruitment of military and naval personnel into the fire service (which happened frequently, to make use of their existing skills).
The RNA group were really friendly and interested in all the information provided by the museum team. It was great to spend time with them. 😀👍😀👍

05/10/2026

We have got two open days coming up at the museum for Halloween: Sunday 25th October and Tuesday 27th October. If you would like to attend, please make a booking via Eventbrite (free entry):

Sunday 25th October:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/essex-fire-museum-open-day-tickets-1974857603253

Tuesday 27th October:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/essex-fire-museum-open-day-tickets-1974858385593?aff=erelpanelorg

We are open from 10.30am to 4.00pm. Last suggested entry is 2.30pm.

Our address is:
Essex Fire Museum
Grays Fire Station (rear of)
Hogg Lane,
Grays,
Essex
RM17 5QS

Hope to see you there. 😀👍😀👍

25/09/2026

Historical Spotlight: Frogmen Firemen

Essex County Fire Brigade’s largest water rescue operation was on the night of “The Great Flood” 31st/1st January/February 1953. Today the fire service regularly rescues people from water. “Don’t drive into floodwater “, is constant fire service advice, but people still do and firefighters rescue them.
In fact Essex was a pioneer with firefighters and water rescue with an experiment that was ahead of its time. In 1956 “Fire” magazine featured East Ham Fire Brigade’s firemen/frogmen – an initiative by the bough’s chief fire officer, Frank Rushbrook. He was a ship fire expert and East Ham included some of the London docks. It was rescuing people from the dock complex rather than from flooding that prompted the idea. A Youtube clip shows an exercise by East Ham’s firemen/frogmen assisted by an ambulance and police officers from the Port of London Authority. The clip also highlights East Ham’s American style sirens on its fire engines rather than the traditional bell.
However, the frogmen were very much a Rushbrook brainwave which didn’t catch on. There were snags and reservations and Rushbrook’s departure to take up an assistant chief fire officer post in Scotland meant the idea didn’t progress.

16/09/2026

We held a special open day this week for people living with dementia (and friends, family, carers). Our volunteers gave the group a tour of the museum followed by teas / cakes and some nice chats. It was good to spend time with such a great group of people.
The event was in partnership with the Thurrock Dementia Friendly Communities group and the Alzheimer's Society. 😀👍👍😀

04/09/2026

Museum monthly focus:

Our fantastic volunteer Mick Ford has spent the last few months converting a large stock of slides (over 1000) to positive images for our museum database. The slides were originally obtained by museum founder Roger Pickett. During a visit to our old HQ in Hutton, Roger spotted a cache of glass negatives and asked if he could have them for the museum. He later discovered that they contained a large number of incident photos from the 1950's and early 1960's. It really was a fantastic find.
Mick has spent many hours cataloguing the photographs so that we can find images easily. We now have a great museum resource to help us illustrate the story of Essex County Fire and Rescue Service.
Great work from the museum team!!

26/08/2026

We had a lovely message this week from the Essex Mums group to say that we had been put through to their shortlist for best Museum 2026. They have supplied the voting link below:

www.essexmums.com/awards/voting/

We really appreciate being nominated😀. The winner will be featured on Essex Mums' social media, newsletters and website.

If you're able to vote for the Essex Fire Museum that really will be fantastic 😀👍👍😀.

*voting closes on the 30th September.

20/08/2026

It was really nice to see so many people at our family open day this week. We have got another one coming up on Sunday 30th August. If you would like to come along please make a booking via Eventbrite (free).

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/essex-fire-museum-open-day-tickets-1974856292332?aff=ebdsoporgprofile&_gl=1*1y7x9bg*_up*MQ..*_ga*MTYzMjI1NzY0MC4xNzg3MjMwNDQy*_ga_TQVES5V6SH*czE3ODcyMzA0NDEkbzEkZzAkdDE3ODcyMzA0NDEkajYwJGwwJGgwJGRaQ05DRWZaM3pXRUFISEFNZVZsQVVHX19fbEFweF85MmRB

Hope to see you there😀😀.

Address

Essex Fire Museum, Grays Fire Station, Hogg Lane
Grays
RM175

Telephone

+441376576848

Website

https://www.essex-fire.gov.uk/fire_museum

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