A few landmarks in fire-fighting history have taken place in Manchester.

England’s first municipal fire service was set up here in 1826, while the first-ever motorised fire engine in the country was put into service in Eccles in 1901. At Rochdale’s Art Deco fire station, dating to the 1930s, there’s a free museum open Friday and Sunday and recounting this history of fire fighting in the Manchester region.

The museum plunges you into specific time periods, like a Victorian street scene and the depths of the Manchester Blitz in autumn/winter 1940. There are 23 large-scale appliances to inspect, among them a hand-drawn pump from 1741, hose carts from 1900 and 1904, and a fine Dennis Metz 125-ft turntable ladder from 1957.