In pictures: Bexhill's first fire engine from 1895 returns home after a century

The museum said it was first offered for display in 1920 when it was retired from service but there was no room for it then as the museum had only one gallery.

It was found in the collection of another museum by now-retired Bexhill firefighter Keith Ring in 2019.

With the support of East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, plans were made to bring her home.

Now, after partial renovation in the museum’s workshop and Bexhill Fire Station, it glows brightly in the Transport Gallery, thanks to the support of dozens of individual donors, a £3,000 grant from Bexhill Town Council and fundraising by local firefighters.

Gordon Smith, volunteer services co-ordinator at Bexhill Museum, said: “The fire engine is a Merryweather steam pump, built in 1895. It has a coal-fired boiler to produce water pressure. This powered a pump which operated two hoses.

“It was stationed at the fire station which was then situated behind the town hall in Amherst Road and was drawn by two horses. It is still owned by the Fire Service and is on loan to the museum.

“After it was withdrawn from fire service in 1920 it spent 13 years as a pump with the Bexhill Borough Surveyor’s Office before it was put in storage.

“Then it went on its travels. It was sent to Northamptonshire where a fire service museum was planned, This failed to materialise so it was moved to another potential site in Hampshire, but that plan failed as well.

“It ended up with a fire engine collector in Yorkshire. In October 2021 it was brought to Hastings Fire Station and later to Bexhill Fire Station.”

A public appeal for money to restore it was launched with the Fire Service holding a series of fundraising events.

Since May this year it has been in the museum workshop where a volunteer team, led by Ken Bywater, has been sprucing it up.

His team of Steve Chatfield, Stuart Pemberton, Roy Blackmore, David Aldred and Graeme Lacey have repainted it and polished the brass and copper.

The wheels and brakes went for repair to royal wheelwrights Croford Coachbuilders in Ashford.

Gordon added: “The “Bexhill Urban District Council” lettering shown in was painstakingly recreated by hand by Dr Amy Goodwin, an expert in historic transport insignia based in Falmouth.”