The Romans & Normans
The Romans
Fire Brigades are not a new concept in Britain, we can trace their history as far
back as the Roman 
Conquest of Britain, when bands of slaves were employed as
fire fighters. They were called the "Familia Publica" and were
stationed around the walls and gates of towns and cities. They were not an
efficient body and in AD6, after a disastrous fire, the Emperor Augustus
instituted the "Corps of Vigiles" who were to protect Rome for the
next five hundred years. Vigiles passed out of history with the disintegration
of the Roman Empire. Europe was not to know an organised and well equipped Fire
Brigade for another thousand years.
The Normans
The
Normans conquered this country in 1066 and
one of their first laws, which extended throughout the land, was the requirement
that house fires be extinguished at night-fall. The simplest 
way was to put a
metal cover over the open hearth, the French word for this metal cover was
Couvre Feu, which became known as Curfew and the bell became the Curfew Bell. It
was to ring in parts of the country for over eight hundred years, long after its
original purpose had been forgotten. The biggest risks in the Norman towns were the
new churches that the conquerors built and many of today’s Cathedrals contain
records of their disastrous fires.
