Page:Devon and Cornwall Queries Vol 9 1917.djvu/99

Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries. 73 I have also copies of twenty other indentures relating to the Abbey of Hartland, all of them ^b^n^ ,of the period of the last ^*© Abbots, John Prust'^and Thomas Pope. 5^^ n.//2- . J- F. Chanter. 74. Old Fire Hooks at Truro. — Appliances for ex- tinguishing fires in towns and large villages were formerly kept in guildhalls, market places, or churches. They chiefly consisted of leather buckets, ladders, and strong iron hooks attached to long poles. A couple of these fire hooks still remain in the fire station at Truro, and are shown in the accompanying photograph, together with some of the old leather buckets, axes, nozzles or branches, etc. The largest of these fire hooks has 17 ft. 6 ins. remaining of the original wooden staff, which when perfect was probably about 30 ft. in length, including the hook, and 3 ins. in diameter. The iron head is 6 ft. 3 ins. long to the spike, and the hook projects 15 ins. On the staff are two iron rings 3 ins. in diameter, fastened by iron bands if ins. wide. The uppermost ring is 2 ft. 10 ins. from the iron head, and the other a similar distance below the first. These rings, together with probably another at the bottom of the pole, were for ropes or chains to which horses or a gang of men were attached ; the hook having been thrown over the ridge beam or other projection furnishing a firm hold", the hou-.e was then pulled down to prevent the fire spreading to adjoining tenements. The smaller fire hook is 14 ft. long, with a diameter of 2 ins.; the iron head is 21 ins. long and the hook 7^ ins. ; there are no rings on it. These fire hooks were last used at a fire about fifty years ago. Some portions of an old manual fire engine are also stored in the fire station and are worth preserving, and might be put together and presented to the Museum of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, where examples of all appliances formerly in use but now discarded should be found. H. W. Hockin, Chief Officer Truro Fire Brigade. 75. Teigngrace Church. — This church is mentioned in Bishop Stafford's Register in the year 1409 as "the Parish Church of the Apostles Peter and Paul." In 1782 (five