Harleston Fire Brigade have been active in the town and it’s surrounding area for more than 300 years. In the early 1700’s the parish ordered cromes (curved rake for removing burning thatch), ladders and 25 leather buckets. Paid volunteers were called on when a fire occured, much like the retained firefighters of today. They were also insurance schemes in place for properties. This, mainly pictoral, display highlights some of the most memorable fires they have attended and

Between 1942 and 1945 there were at any one time around 50,000 USAAF (United States Army Air Force) stationed within a 30 mile radius of Norwich. The impact of this ‘friendly invasion’ on the local people was considerable, particularly in some villages where American service men and women, vastly outnumbered the local population. Hundreds of miles of concrete runways were laid in a matter of months and there was an introduction, to our rationed region, of peanut butter, donut

Harleston Industries Ltd opened in 1961, with 170 people on the payroll, by 1966 it had leapt to 380 and a new building had to be erected...