Gareth (Taffy) Davies

From: Articles

1950 on the right Gareth Davies with firemen on a outing. One of the other firemen is Bill Sowerbutts. If anybody out there recognises anyone in any of the attached pictures please let us no.

1952 Children's Christmas Party

1953 Coronation Party

Gareth's two sons and daughter at the Coronation party 1953.

I would think it was probably the Mayors Parade.

Just to update on the life of Taff. After leaving Blackburn Fire Brigade he went to Hull for 2 years. He then became Transport Officer for Cornwall Fire Brigade and one of his first call outs was in connection with the Torrey Canyon disaster. He became Brigade Engineer in 1974 and retired in 1976. He then went to Saudi Arabia for 2 years where he was Transport Officer for the fire brigade at Dharhan International Airport. He returned to the Uk and retired to Mabe in Cornwall where he died in 1996, nine months after celebrating his golden wedding anniversary.

A big thanks must go to the Davies family for this contribution to the history of the site

I started my career at Blackburn Fire Station in June 1964 and have a distant memory of the then Transport Officer of who I new as Taffy Davies. He started as mechanic in 1948 and worked his way up to Transport Officer until 1964 were he moved on to Hull City Fire Service. Gareth’s Son remembers the the four years that they lived on the Block in Canterbury St and 34 Sumner St with fond memories. Ironically when I got married in 1968 we moved into 38 Sumner St next door but one.

From John Davis ex fireman

My dad, Gareth Davies joined Blackburn Fire Brigade in 1948. He was a mechanic and rose through the ranks to become transport officer before leaving to transfer to Hull Fire Brigade in 1964. In 1951 the family moved from Waterfall to live at 81 Canterbury Street and after a few months there we then moved to 34 Sumner St where we stayed until November 1954 when we left the fire station houses and moved to Preston New Rd.
I can remember many happy times playing as a small boy in the fire station yard and especially remember one very cold winter when the snow was so deep that we were able to build an igloo.
I can also remember attending the Christmas party held in the room above where the engines were kept , the annual bonfire held in the yard and in 1953 there was a fancy dress party held to celebrate the Queens Coronation

Creator

Bob France

Date of creation

1960

Date of coverage

1948 - 1965

Place

Blackburn

Contributor

The Davies Family

Reference number

BP/BP5/2/0006/0003/0004

Comments about this page

Reply
Hi there! I could have sworn I’ve visited this web site before but after
looking at some of the posts I realized it’s new to me. Anyhow, I’m certainly pleased
I stumbled upon it and I’ll be bookmarking it and checking back regularly!
By Brenton (11/06/2015)
Reply
small picture, first boy sat on chair is Tony Riding, 2nd boy is Brian Birtwhistle ( chiefs son).
By Linda Parker (Hogg) (06/05/2014)
Reply
I’m the blonde girl with the hair ribbon in the middle front row, 2nd girl front row left is Sheila Thomas, next girl along after me is Joan Holden. Sat behind me is Pat Petty. Back row on enlarged picture, 3rd in is Dick Petty, then Mr Birtwhistle, then Cliff Nicholson, then I think Deputy James Morris, and last one is Albert Bradley.
By Linda Parker (19/04/2014)
Reply
On the 1950’2 photo Taff is on the right and I think that one of the other firemen is Bill Sowerbutts.
By John Davies (16/04/2014)