Hose It Down...

A productive day today as I went up to Cheshire to pick up some more bits for the Commer. This time, rather than mechanical bits, these are parts which it would have carried when in service as a hose layer with the AFS in the 1960s. However, as it was only registered in 1964 and the AFS disbanded in 1968, whether it actually ever fulfilled this purpose for real is debatable!

Anyway, I picked up three lengths of canvas 6" hose that a fellow goddess owner had stored. This 6" hose was used when goddesses were relay pumping from pump to pump over long distances. I'm not sure how long this was used for as even the 1963 training video I have seen shows them using plastic hose rather than canvas, hence why I have the distinct feeling that whilst they kept some and regularly inspected it, it was never really used (imagine drying 2-3 miles of canvas hose?!).

The hoses are held together with these neat and presumably original straps:

Evidence that it was regularly tested, here the tag dates from December 1991:

I also managed to pick up a few more toggles / couplings from the same chap - these were used to couple the 6" hose together and the Commer would / should have carried 12 when in service, so together with those I picked up from Vass last year, that's not far off 12:

Then it was on to another part of Cheshire to pick up two collecting heads. These were used to convert anything from one to six normal hose deliveries to one 6" hose and the Commer would have carried three when in service; luckily I already had one from a few years ago which I bought on spec and currently keep stored in my goddess. Ugly but at the same time, a work of early 1950s utilitarian beauty!!