Pictures

This photograph, from about 1963, shows Fireman Roy Barnes of Warwick Terrace, Yeo Vale, at the wheel of the last open-topped fire engine in North Devon. It is leaving the fire station at the end of Pilton Causeway to be taken to the Fire Service HQ in Exeter. The fire station moved to its current location on the North Road in 1965.

The fire engine shown has Devon County Fire Service on the side. It is understood that the Devon Fire Brigade was formed in 1973 by the amalgamation of Exeter City Brigade, Plymouth City Brigade and Devon County Brigade, and became Devon Fire and Rescue Service in 1987. It then merged with the Somerset Fire & Rescue Service to become the Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service in 2007.

Many thanks to Roy Barnes for this photograph and details. Roy had previously lived at 94 Pilton Street, now the Pilton Fryer, until his marriage to Lynne Barnes in 1961.