GTO 10 DENNIS 100ft MERRYWEATHER TL

Dennis Merryweather Fire Appliance GTO 10 was ordered by the Home Office just after the outbreak of World War 2 as part of an order for thirty three 100′ (30m) turntable ladders to be supplied by the Home Office to Fire Brigades with additional needs because of wartime conditions. This was known as the Grant Aid scheme.

A total of 18 Dennis versions were built, GTO 10 being number 2 in the scheme. This chassis was delivered to Merryweather from Dennis Bros in April 1940.

GTO10 was supplied to the Nottingham City Fire Brigade, registered on 14th of June 1940 and put into service at their Shakespeare Street station in that year.

In August 1941 it became part of the National Fire Service and remained in Nottingham City. In 1948 the NFS was disbanded and local authority Fire Brigades reformed.

GTO 10 again became part of Nottingham City Fire Brigade, It continued to serve at Shakespeare Street station until 1955, when it was moved to the Abbey Road station in Dunkirk until it was taken out of service in 1965 when it was sold into private ownership.It has changed hands many times and at some stage has received a Leyland diesel engine in place of its original Meadows petrol engine. The 100 foot Merryweather ladder is production number MW-65 and the chassis/frame number is 3041A. Its unladen weight is 9 tons 17cwt 84lbs.

Between 1941 and 1943 Dennis and Merryweather built 43 100ft Turntable Ladders for the National Fire Service. GTO10 was Ladder number 11 for Nottingham City Fire Brigade and was replaced by ETV999C an AEC Merryweather in 1965.

Purchased by Mr Tommy Binder from Long Eaton to cut down trees.

It was taken from him by Charlie Alcon in lieu of a £1,000 debt. Mr Alcon died circa 1982.

It was then sold to Mr Noel Bexon of Whetstone. There were 6 buses from the British Shoe Corporation. A Leyland 600 engine from one of these was fitted to GTO10 by Neville Bexon. The Bexons moved to Mumby then Burgh Le Marsh.

It was then sold to Bryan Leggate of Old Bollingbroke.

In 1989-1990 it was sold to Bernard Hodgins of Boston and then to Kevin Dennis of Skegness.

On the 28th June 1990 it was acquired by Peter and David Cosby. In March and agreement was reached between Peter & David Cosby and The Fire Services National Museum Trust at Weedon that GTO10 could stay at the museum for twenty years on long term loan from the 15th March 2001. Unfortunately on the 10th June 2002 a letter was sent to David Cosby from The Fire Services National Museum Trust saying they could no longer look after the appliance as they were rationalising their collection.

It was sold for £1500 after the sale had finished at an auction at A17 Commercials in 2003.

On the 22nd April 2004 it was registered to Gavin Palin of Nantwich.

Strathclyde Fire & Rescue Preservation Group purchased the appliance in September 2009 and restoration is now complete and the appliance travels regularly to events

© Scottish Fire Brigades Heritage Trust

Registered Scottish Charity (SC043929)