About
The National Emergency Services Museum was originally opened on 8 May 1984 as the "Sheffield Fire and Police Museum", it was given its present name on 1 January 2014. The museum is located, near Sheffield city centre, in one of the first purpose built combined police and fire stations in the north of England, dating back to 1898. The fantastic collection covers law and order, and social history but obviously it is dominated by emergency vehicles. The museum currently has over 45 vehicles on display. As would be expected this includes horse drawn and mechanically propelled, fire engines. ambulances and police cars. However there are also vehicles relating to the British Mines Rescue Service and a number of motorcycles used for dispatch riders during wartime , in support of the Auxiliary Fire Service.
The exhibits are mainly British in origin but overseas exhibits include an, American , LA France 700 Series fire engine, which previously Served with the Oridale Fire Dept, New Jersey and a Trabant fire officer’s car from the former East Germany.
The displays are very imaginative and use lights, sound and smoke to bring history back to life. In the police section of the museum the former cells are open to visitors and an important feature is one of the few remaining fire brigade observation towers in the UK which were used in the days before widespread telephone availability to watch over the city for fires.
