JULY 14, 1935, was a significant date in the history of Oxford Volunteer Fire Brigade.

We recalled (Memory Lane, September 19) how a large crowd gathered outside the Town Hall in St Aldate’s to welcome a new appliance, registration number BWL 810.

The mayor, Mr GC Pipkin, smashed a bottle of Champagne over the bumper and christened it Fred Ballard after the brigade’s president.

This photograph was taken a short time afterwards when the mayor had been driven aboard the tender to fire headquarters in Gloucester Green.

Civic dignitaries and senior officers are pictured on the Fred Ballard engine on the left, while the volunteer firemen are pictured on another appliance behind them.

We’re not sure how the car between them, registration number JO 743, fits into the picture, although there appears to be someone in the driving seat.

The purpose of the visit was for the mayor to open an extension to the fire station.

The brigade had suffered a severe lack of space and had expanded into part of the old Corn Exchange.

On the far right, there are two signs – one for the Welsh Pony pub and another advertising the Salvation Army ‘hostel for working men, with good beds and food’.

The picture comes from Annette Moore, of Chalgrove, whose father, Cyril ‘Jim’ Bushnell, was a member of Oxford Volunteer Fire Brigade.