Coventry Firsts

Coventry was the first city in the world to be twinned internationally... although it would be joint first with Stalingrad/Volgograd.

Hi 20A-Manor House Was this colour an experiment to make them more visible than the red ones?

That's my understanding of it - particularly as orange sodium lights were beginning to be used along the main city roads in the 1960s.

The yellow fire engines glowed almost silver in the sodium street lights. The later red fire engines of the West Midlands Fire Service appeared a dull grey in the same lighting conditions. The yellow paint was actually called 'Coventry Fire Brigade Yellow'.

Another first on these yellow fire engines ( a friend of ours would always say "they are not fire engines they are fire appliances" ) was that they were the first in the country to be equipped with air compressor power tools like cutting and jacking equipment and lighting.

Cengar saw and zip gun, Anne

Whatever the intention, the yellow paint certainly made the fire appliances stand out under the sodium street lights. I was not a fireman but have seen them in action at a road accident and guess that they were probably safer because their fire appliance was utterly more visible than the old or the later red appliances (there was even a pink one some time in the 70's). This was all before the days of bright yellow hi-vis jackets and trousers and reflective stripes. On the subject of air tools, I recall a fireman telling the story about 1974 when Coventry, Solihull, and Sutton Coldfield found themselves part of the new West Midlands Fire Service. There had been a road accident somewhere in the centre of Birmingham, possibly the A38M, and a person was trapped. An appliance from I think Solihull was despatched and arrived at the scene complete with the compressed air cutting gear. The Birmingham firemen had never seen anything so modern, although they all had big axes. The unfortunate victim was soon cut free from the car and whisked away to hospital. In the meantime the Solihull crew demonstrated the equipment to their Birmingham colleagues by cutting more bits off the wrecked car. The Birmingham boys then had a play, cutting even more bits off the car which was a nearly new Jensen Interceptor belonging to a well know pop star, although he was not in the car at the time. Apparently he took the loss of his car quite well and went out and bought another.

Hello, I heartily agree with your comments regards Birmingham resourced equipment. Possibly the fact that Birmingham council was a collection of village committees, funding had to be agreed by so many integral bodies. Folks still refer to Eardington village, Aston village & so on. Only a thought.

Philip, I think you are right. Coventry has long had a reputation as a city of invention and innovation, hence this forum topic. Birmingham had those same qualities, but it was more than a couple of hundred years ago. In my experience, the Brummies liked to be thought of as conservative (with a small 'c'), yet I often wonder if the reality was that they were bogged down by their own complex administration, or maybe they were just penny pinchers. New equipment has to be purchased, maintained, and eventually replaced. Staff will need training and re-training to operate that equipment. All costly issues, maybe better to say, 'Grandad made do with a sharp axe, so why do you want some new fangled compressed air cutting gear'. This is not a downer on Brummies, they are the salt of the earth, at least the people at the sharp end are.

Nice one, Anne, I've added this extra information now.

I have read somewhere that Coventry was the birthplace of "The Green Party", originally called The Peoples Party"? Any thoughts?

"The Green Party of England and Wales has its roots in the PEOPLE Party started in Coventry in 1972/3 by four professional friends (Michael Benfield, Freda Sanders, Tony Whittaker and Lesley Whittaker). It then changed its name to the more descriptive Ecology Party in 1975, and to the Green Party ten years later." Mick.

Coventry blue dye and ribbons