Museum of RAF Firefighting

Museum of RAF Firefighting A collection of over 50 Fire Engines, mostly RAF and various kinds of pumps, helmets, models

We have the keys. We have the building. Now, we need the space. 🚀Thanks to your incredible support and the generosity of...
17/07/2026

We have the keys. We have the building. Now, we need the space. 🚀

Thanks to your incredible support and the generosity of local businesses like Parkacre, the Museum of RAF Firefighting finally has a home at historic Hemswell Cliff!

But right now, we are caught in a classic catch-22.

To save thousands of pounds in external storage fees, our entire archive, artifact and spares collection is currently packed tightly inside our new building. It’s safe, but it means the building is acting as a giant storage unit. We can't pick up a paintbrush, rewire the lights, or lay out the displays until we can clear the floor.

Here is part of the plan: We need two weatherproof ISO shipping containers to safely hold the collection on-site while our volunteers transform the building into a proper, living visitor attraction, not to mention funds for moving vehicles to the site.

The cost? £6,000 each. Total goal: £12,000 alone for the containers.

It sounds like a lot but look at the maths: There are over 5,000 of you following this page. If just half of our followers signed up to donate just £1 a month, we would buy these containers in just over two months. One pound. Less than half the price of a coffee, once a month, to contribute to Europe's premier Military and the world’s largest dedicated RAF firefighting museum.

👉 Can you spare £1 a month to unlock our doors?
Set up your support here:

https://www.zeffy.com/en-GB/donation-form/keep-the-flame-alive-support-the-museum-of-raf-fire-fighting

or just scan the QR code in the attached pictures with your phone.

If you cannot give £1 a month then, please share this post to others. Let us make Hemswell Cliff a destination together! 🚒🔥

Alternatively: Using the same link, you can choose to donate a fixed amount of your choice, every penny counts towards success.

An alternative ask: Do you or your employer have connections to logistics, shipping, or construction? Do you know where we could source two weatherproof containers at a reduced cost, sponsorship or even as a donation? We would welcome any feedback or drop us a direct message.

P.S. Just to clear up any confusion-if you accidentally type an extra zero or two after that £1, we promise our bank account will not reject it, but put it to good use, we are very flexible like that! 😉😉🚨

Coming live for you today direct from RAF Digby supporting our service personnel and their families at Digby day. The we...
11/07/2026

Coming live for you today direct from RAF Digby supporting our service personnel and their families at Digby day. The weather is hot hot and we are all melting under the sun. Fortunately we've a tank full of water on one of the appliances.

A steady stream of visitors young and old all taking interest.

We are proud of our history and support to our forces family and veterans alike.

The Story of the Hemswell link, how we got where we are today.Firstly a massive thank you to those that have responded t...
10/07/2026

The Story of the Hemswell link, how we got where we are today.

Firstly a massive thank you to those that have responded to our first Newsflash post with donations to our fundraiser. We really appreciate each and every one of you on such a great response so far.

The old RAF Station at Hemswell once thriving with aviation activity, and a base for our early cold war deterrent, the RAF Fire Service played a prominent role in its history. Hemswell is now home to Europe’s largest Antiques Centre and in addition, hosts several small businesses, cafes and memorials Clearly keeping its aviation links at heart.

It is also home to the Broadcast Engineering Museum who have kindly provided us with a home for our archive collection as well as a meeting place for our volunteers. They have also been kind enough to allow a pop up room to keep the museum in the public eye at there events. It enjoys seeing many visitors throughout the week.

Networking with those on site provided opportunity to engage with Hemswell based company Parkacre and thanks to their generosity, the museum has managed to secure a lease on a plot of land complete with a building and toilets where we hope to re-establish the museum into a visitor attraction where you can visit and see the vehicles and collection together again. This will hopefully give us the ability to generate an income from visitors and produce a much-needed boost to our funds.

Without such support from local business and friends alike we simply couldn’t have accomplished this huge task in which museum volunteers put many hours of hard work, lifting, carrying and sorting objects.

We cannot forget our Standing Order Supporters and others who have donated over the period of the museum’s existence, we owe you a huge debt. Without you, we simply wouldn’t have been able to survive. You have literally kept the dream alive.

The museum will still need to generate funds, but now these funds can be used for development rather than survival. Click here to see how you can help take this forward:

https://www.zeffy.com/en-GB/donation-form/keep-the-flame-alive-support-the-museum-of-raf-fire-fighting

“Newsflash”We have some fantastic news!! Since COVID your museum, all 62 vehicles and 20,000 exhibits has been in a stor...
05/07/2026

“Newsflash”

We have some fantastic news!!

Since COVID your museum, all 62 vehicles and 20,000 exhibits has been in a storage at multiple locations pending a permanent home. With forced moves, evictions and disappointment, especially with the Home Office decision to occupy Scampton the museum remained homeless.

Enter Plan B. Storage costs have spiraled for us over the last six years and had got to the point where we could not go on as we were; funds at their lowest and our outgoings more than our limited income meant that something needed to change.

Negotiations and a lot of hard work behind the scenes over the last few months have come to fruition and we are pleased to announce an important development which has slashed storage costs and guarantee sustainability of the museum over the next five years.

The museum has secured a parcel of land with buildings at the old RAF Hemswell site. It is an ideal facility to develop into a living museum nested amongst the former airfield buildings and the Hemswell site.

Preparation of the property has begun and within a couple of weeks our biggest outlay, as previously mentioned, storage costs have all but ceased.

Thanks to a Facebook post, the owner of Needham Haulage, Nigel Housley kindly gave up his Saturday morning and a curtain side lorry at nil cost to move over thirty pallets of material out of storage to the new building. James Selby of Access Lincs Ltd provided a forklift at one end of the route whilst Andrew from Tower Nurseries provided another with driver Craig to help us at the other end.

It is support like this we very much cherish in the drive to keep the story alive.

Look out for further posts on how you may be able to help. For now, you can help us here:

https://www.zeffy.com/en-GB/donation-form/keep-the-flame-alive-support-the-museum-of-raf-fire-fighting

This is truly an amazing step forward and allows so much opportunity for all.

Great day today at lots of visitors and engagement. Come and visit us tomorrow. We are in the Armed Forces Zone.
17/06/2026

Great day today at lots of visitors and engagement. Come and visit us tomorrow. We are in the Armed Forces Zone.

Come and visit us at the Lincoln show we are in the Armed Forces Zone
17/06/2026

Come and visit us at the Lincoln show we are in the Armed Forces Zone

Just a quick update on our venture out last week to two locations sadly no signal onsite at the second venue Carrington ...
30/05/2026

Just a quick update on our venture out last week to two locations sadly no signal onsite at the second venue Carrington Rally to post at the time.

It was fantastic to be out in the name of the museum once again. So many folk old and new talking to us and listening to our story. We were welcomed by all. An overnight stop allowed for some night ops with the ACRT standing watch in the moonlight.

Back to normal this week with a lot of hard work being undertaken by the team. Watch this space for a full report coming up with some promising news!!

26/05/2026

Can you help please?
We are currently looking for an HGV company who might be able to help us move pallets of memorabilia from a location near Doncaster to the old RAF Station at Hemswell this Saturday the 30th May. Plenty of volunteers to assist, we just need a sizeable truck with a tail lift. A box lorry would be ideal. We know times are hard for all of us at the moment but if some kind hearted individual owner/driver or company could assist with our charitable work we’d love to hear from you please.
We will give you all the credit that you deserve via our social media outlets as a thank you. If you think you can help please message us or call 01522730198 for further details. Fingers crossed.

Day one and the first destination completed this bank holiday saw our ACRT at East Kirkby Tanks and Tracks event. Standi...
23/05/2026

Day one and the first destination completed this bank holiday saw our ACRT at East Kirkby Tanks and Tracks event. Standing proud amidst a sea of green Crash 1, basking in brilliant sunshine it turned some favourable heads drawing plenty of attention. Friends old, new, young and old admired a favourite exhibit. Stories were told, distant memories brought back to life, it was great having some public interaction in our difficult times.

The rest of the team should not be forgotten. They have been working hard behind the scenes back at admin HQ within the BEM at Hemswell and our storage site whilst they work on some exciting news, so watch this space!!😲

We have now arrived at our next venue, so if you are out and about in sunny Lincolnshire tomorrow or Monday, why not pop in to the Carrington Steam Rally and come and see the ACRT for yourself, have a chat, tell us some stories whilst enjoying what the show has to offer. We can be found in the military vehicles area hopefully not melting in this mini heatwave we are experiencing. 🚒

Address

Capper Avenue
Hemswell
DN215XS

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