Image Ref : WEF 0003.tif

Heavitree 1870

"West of England Insurance Company" - Heavitree. dated 22.06.1870 From T.Cadbury, Exeter Museum - DVD DP8. West of England Company founded 1807 - taken over by the Commercial Union 1894. The West of England set up a brigade of 16 men in Exeter in 1808. Twenty years later, having established a London office, they formed a brigade at Blackfriars. Unlike most of the other companies with brigades in London they did nor join the London Fire engine Establishment until 1858. Their London brigade was therefore operative for 30 years, 25 of these during the period when most of the other insurance brigades had disappeared into the L.F.E.E.