Equipment

The engine selected by Broadway Parish Council, and supplied by Merryweather & Sons, was a Greenwich Manual (see illustration below). By the end of the 19th Century steam powered fire pumps were preferred by larger fire brigades. But for parish brigades like Broadway a manual pump was still the best option. The purchase price and running costs of a manual machine were much less than those of a steamer. The Greenwich Manual, an improved version of their 1851 London Bridge pattern, could, according to Merryweather, deliver 146 gallons of water per minute, and project a jet to a height of 125 feet. As a comparison a modern fire pump will deliver approximately 400 gallons per minute. It was described as being for 26 men. This number was presumably made up of three crews of eight who took turns in pumping, leaving two men to deal with the hoses. The body was constructed of mahogany with a large locker for hoses and other equipment. Two gunmetal pumps were operated by the side handles via wrought iron levers. Riding on four large wooden wheels with steel leaf springs it was light enough to be hauled at a gallop by two horses.
A comprehensive set of equipment was also purchased with the engine including suction hose with a basket strainer for drawing from open water, four lengths of delivery hose and one branchpipe. There were twelve canvas buckets which were probably used as an alternative method of supplying water to the pump. A pair of ladders was attached to the sides of the engine. (list of equipment)

The pump was put through its paces in November 1901 when Edgar Flower, who had given the money to buy the engine, asked the brigade to bring it to his home, Middle Hill House. It proved powerful enough to direct a jet over the highest chimney of the house. There was insufficient suction hose to reach his basement water tanks, so Mr. Flower asked the Parish Council to order further lengths for which he agreed to pay. Mr. Flower, understandably, wanted to ensure that the equipment he had so generously provided for the village, would be able to fight a fire at his home, should the need arise.

A Merryweather Greenwich manual, similar
to the one supplied to the Broadway brigade.
Various other small items of equipment were added over the years, including an axe, shovel, and hand lamps. In 1902 James Martin, captain of the brigade at the time, asked for a hand cart, but the request was refused by the Parish Council on several occasions due to cost. As Martin must have pointed out, the brigade could have turned out with the hose and other equipment on a hand cart much more quickly than with the fire engine. This may, at first, seem like a backwards step, but for small incidents close to the station where the hose could be connected directly to a hydrant it would have been especially useful. A cart was eventually purchased in 1919 for the sum of £3:15s.
Merryweather instantaneous couplings
From Merrweather's catalogue c.1900
Soon after the formation of the brigade attention turned to providing some method of calling out the crew in the event of a fire. A bell was thought to be of little use due to the difficulty of distinguishing it from the many other bells in the village. John Morris, the clerk to the Parish Council wrote to Merryweather asking them to send a powerful foghorn on approval. Merryweather & Sons replied that a fog horn would not be suitable. This would have been because of the lack of any power supply. They suggested instead a large bell, or an electric telegraph connected to the firemen’s homes.
The clerk then canvassed the opinion of other brigades in the area. All those who replied were currently using a hand operated bell situated, in most cases, on top of their station. The general feeling of the other brigades was, that although not an ideal way of raising the alarm, a bell served the purpose fairly well. The Moreton-in-Marsh captain suggested the use of electrical alarms connected to the men's homes. He found that their bell, when sounded, attracted a crowd of onlookers, who in his words, "Are at times a hindrance to prompt work". Finally, though, the council decided on a bell rather than the electric telegraph, presumably because the latter would have been too expensive. A quote of £4:16:6d was obtained from T.W.Coke of Sheerness for a 14" bell and 40' of tufted rope, and it was agreed it should be ordered. Gill Brothers of Bourton-on-the-Hill quoted £7:15s to construct a tower on the fire station to house the bell; this quote was also accepted by the council.(see proposed bell tower)
Providing horses to haul the fire engine was as much a problem for the Broadway brigade as it was for other small brigades. It would have been prohibitively expensive to buy and keep horses solely for this purpose. Instead, they had to rely on having an agreement with someone to supply horses as and when required. The Broadway brigade’s horses were at first supplied by Robert Cordell, proprietor of the Lygon Arms, who was captain of the brigade at the time. Charles Stuart Drury of Mill Hay in Snowshill Road provided them from about 1901 until 1904 when John Cotterell, one of the firemen, assumed responsibility. John Cotterell continued to provide horses for the next fifteen years, until 1919.

There then followed a period when it was not possible to get anyone to make a definite commitment to supply horses to the Brigade. Mr. Roberts of the Swan Inn said he would do his very best to provide them if called upon. But this situation was clearly unsatisfactory, so in 1921 an iron towing bar was fitted to the fire engine. This enabled it to be hauled to fires behind various motor vehicles which were, at that time, becoming more common. The first recorded instance of motor haulage is by means of a vehicle supplied by Broadway Garage, to a fire at Mr. Galt's of Kite's Nest in 1921. So ended the era of the horse drawn engine, and the uncertainty over haulage.
The change from horses to motor haulage removed one more source of complaint from the local critics who, of course, were always on hand to find fault. There is a story, handed down with some amusement, about the horses having to be rounded up from a field on the hill, and about the resultant lengthy delay in turning out whilst the firemen chased them around the field. This story may or may not be true, but, in fact, turnout times were often quite good. For instance, on a dark January evening in 1903, it is recorded that the brigade was able to hitch the horses, and get mobile to a fire just twenty minutes after the alarm was raised.