Nice photo! I have one of these stretchers in my garage rafters. I rescued it years ago from the grounds of a mental hospital near Epsom that was being converted to housing. Unfortunately someone-else beat me to the enamel ARP Post sign there. Car is a 1950 Mercury, in case anyone was wondering.
Good show Chris thank you for the information I am still tracking them down in London I think I have them all now but still looking for one in Hackney regards Clive
Finally pulled the stretcher down from the garage rafters and had a go at preserving it a bit, with helpful advice from my friend Craig who runs this excellent website – WW2 Civil Defence Uniforms, Insignia & Equipment It was in pretty poor shape – a bit banana shaped, and bits of the mesh rusted away. Replaced the missing bits with some suitably sized welding rod. It still had traces of the original ‘Verdigris’ green paint. Funny but you always tend to think of these stretchers as being painted black – maybe because of the black and white photos of the Blitz, or the fact that the fences in London are usually painted black. While cleaning it up I found the original manufacturer’s name, ‘Whitfields’, stamped into it, along with the date ‘1938’. – According to a Ministry of Labour Gazette dated 1938, Whitfields was a company in Birmingham that made bedsteads. I had some paint aerosols made up in a ‘Verdigris’ colour, (though it’s actually looking rather a bright turquoise in these photos). Another company that manufactured these stretchers was VONO. Craig made me up some reproduction water slide decals as used on their stretchers - just to add a bit of detail to my one. Anyway, though this is not a perfect restoration job, I hope this little bit of Home Front history will now be able to survive for a while longer. A mate has a 1929 Ford pickup truck that he intends to do up as an ARP Light Rescue vehicle to take to 1940s events. So this stretcher, along with a few other suitable bits and pieces, will be put on the back.
Still there Gone quite on the preservation front. Last visit assumed due to poor condition of some that they would be replaced Devons Road Bromley by Bow London