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Fire Service Museum
UNDER FIRE
Twinwood is host to UNDER FIRE - Britain's only wartime fire service museum. A privately owned collection, it is open on most of the weekends when the whole Twinwood site is open to the public.
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Located in Hut 37, one of the former RAF accommodation blocks, the museum is in the form of a utility fire station built sometime in the 1940s.
Appliances include two Heavy Units, two trailer pumps, an RAF-pattern hose cart and the essential station bicycle.
The Watchroom features period switchboard and other office equipment, including a 1942 RAF plotters' table. There is a working alarm system, so we can "put the bells down"!
The Messroom is authentic 1940s, although we hide the modern kettle as this room is also the restroom for the museum staff!
Available for research is an extensive collection of fire service and home front literature including some 30,000 photographs.
There is also a conventional Exhibition Room with cabinets containing uniforms, equipment and other items of interest.
A member of the Association of Independent Museums and Fire Heritage Network UK, UNDER FIRE also regularly stages exhibitions offsite in support of WW2 events in other locations. In 2006 this entailed trips to Middlesex, Norfolk, Bucks, Herts and Wales.
Accommodation for the vehicle drivers comprises a small Dormitory featuring two (postwar) RAF beds, WW2 dated blankets and other appropriate fittings.
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BEDFORD HEAVY UNIT EX-LINCOLN AFS, NFS AND LONDON
 equipped with 700 gpm Tangye pump
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Built on a 1939 Bedford WLG long-wheelbase 2-ton chassis. 6 cylinder 28 hp petrol engine of 3519 cc. Supplied under DORA number 93418 to Lincoln's Auxiliary Fire Service in early 1939 and allocated to station D2. It stayed there until some time in 1940 when it went to London, serving through the Blitz.

 After the war this vehicle was still in London, at Bow. It was repainted red with the LCC badge on the side panels and used as a major pump before becoming a divisional spare in 1950. It was transferred to the AFS reserve on 6 November 1952 and returned to the Home Office on 23 June 1954 having been replaced by a "Green Goddess".
Some time after this it was sold at auction to a garage. The garage owners removed the original Leyland pump, the number plates and all the bodywork and chassis aft of the rear wheels. A crane was fixed and it was used as a wrecker in a blue and yellow livery.
Acquired for preservation in 1970 it was painted red (again) and the present Ford V8-powered Tangye pump fitted. Although originally carrying a Leyland-powered Gwynne pump, this is authentic as Bedford Heavy Units carried either Leyland, Tangye or Sulzer units when new. However, a number of key components were missing.
The appliance was never registered for road use so it never went out until sold to the present owners in 1980, with the assurance that "it just needs finishing." A complete renovation was undertaken in 1980/82, during which the original 6v electrics were uprated to 12v, the rear chassis and bodywork was rebuilt utilising parts of a wartime Ford Heavy Unit (and a postwar Mercedes bus!) and the entire unit repainted in original AFS/NFS grey. Fortunately the engine and chassis numbers were listed on a 1948 LFB fleet list, and DVLC Swansea were kind enough to reallocate the original number shown against these: FYH 168.
Following a "maiden voyage" to an historic fire appliance show at Kew Bridge Engines in August 1982, this appliance has appeared in four Royal Tournaments, two AFS/NFS retired members' reunions, numerous fire appliance rallies and has made a two-week visit to Germany.
Since 1982 the various missing parts of the pump have been acquired or fabricated and maintenance work done to try to keep pace with the deterioration caused by the vehicle being parked on open farmland. In 1995 the offer of indoor museum accommodation was rapidly accepted and it has been possible since then to make much better progress. The pump supplied water in a fire display in 1996, (by means of being fed from a portable pump drawing from open water) for the first time in at least a quarter of a century.
Current priorities are completion of work on the pump and its engine, fitting of a rear locker and restoration of the various items of firefighting equipment. The bodywork and paintwork are showing signs of use but will have to be the last jobs in the re-restoration.
The flagship of the museum collection at UNDER FIRE, this appliance is fully equipped in accordance with the 1940s Home Office specifications for Heavy Units, and regularly features in the programme of events organised by the 36 FIRE FORCE re-enactment group.
Owned by Roy Goodey, Andrew Scott and Chris Whippe of London.