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The workforce at the Alan Nuttall Partnership in Dudley has opened the doors on a long-locked room to find the headquarters of an old company fire brigade almost perfectly preserved , more than half a century after it stood down .

The story has been featured by the BBC with the story being read by over 80,000 people and the interest has spread far and wide ; into Europe , the US and even Australia !

The huge National Works site , which has belonged to the Alan Nuttall Partnership Limited since 1986 – some thirty years , has also been home to these items which pre-date Nuttalls , by some decades .

For those who may not know , the factory was built in 1915 , on the instruction of David Lloyd George , as a munitions factory for the First World War . The manufacturing continues on the site to this day , although the products have changed over the years , once home to the infamous Bean Cars . For several decades later it was to the Co-operative Wholesale Society ( CWS ) – Dudley Co-op .

The vintage equipment dates from that period , when CWS had their

own works brigade 1934-1971 according to current research .

As Nuttalls celebrated their fiftieth year in business in 2016 , there had been an ongoing hunt for historical stories from around factory floor . The 50 Years of Nuttalls campaign has featured long standing employees and celebrated our fantastic past project work . The story of the old Fire Station was mentioned and the team couldn ’ t resist the curiosity , so it was opened up to take a look , and gain access to the firefighters ’ old station , which has been mothballed behind a padlocked door on the ground floor since the 1950s .

“ We ’ ve always known it was here ,” said Matt Hornblower , Operations Director , “ but this is such a large site , there are little corners that no one goes into . But recently we came in and had a good look around , and we still keep finding things . Anna Bamford our marketing manager was keen to follow up on the story when I mentioned it to her and we made our way across the site to take a look . We were both in awe of how wonderfully preserved the room is , despite a bit of dust , there are drinks , buckets of fire sand and even a newspaper !”

The most impressive piece in there is a pump trailer , powered by a petrol or diesel engine . Still bright red , with ‘ CWS DUDLEY ’ lettered in gold on the front , it looks as though all it needs is a bit of a wipe-down . There is still air in its tyres and just a few spots of oil on the floor beneath . The documentation which is still with it suggests it dates from the 1950s , when the Co-op had its own on-site fire brigade ; a necessity for factories as large as this one , even once a national fire service had been established .

The trailer pump still has its number plate : RJ9012 , which belongs to the trailer and we have been informed that this supports it being from around 1934 . They were part of a limited run and each had a consecutive number plate – right up to 9,999 . I wonder how many are still around today ?

Perhaps even more striking are the uniform jackets and caps , still hanging from hooks on the green-painted walls . In some cases the names of their wearers are still chalked above them , as if they walked out one day and never came back . Names still in evidence include I Silk , W . Price and A Round .