By Jill Stocks

A new production visited Horsforth last weekend, bringing the story of three generations of women firefighters to life.

Trailblazing – Women Have Always Been Firefighters, presented by Space2, is inspired by the real life story of three women firefighters from West Yorkshire through the years; from the Second World War, to the first woman firefighter in Yorkshire in the mid 80’s, to the present day.

The 40-minute production, which was followed by a Q and A session, was performed at St James Church by Jane Morland and written by Dr. Sarah Jane Dickenson.

With Emma James as Designer, Co-producer and Tour Booker Coralie Datta and Emma Tregidden as Co-director, the small team brought to life the experiences faced by women firefighters down the ages, from the air raids during the war to the devastation of car accidents, to delivering fire engines to the Ukraine. 

Coralie told us more about the production.

“Trailblazing is a show about women firefighters all the way from the World War up to the present day,” she said. “It’s been produced by Space2 and I’ve produced it with a team of great women who have all worked on it. 

“We’re working on a three year project with Leeds Beckett University to all cover women’s stories within the fire service and this is one part of the project. 

“There’s one actor. It’s a one woman show with 25 characters so we haven’t made it easy for her.

“We had half the tour before Christmas and that’s been really successful and really positive feedback and then we’ve got a block of shows from now till mid February which is really exciting. Then we are taking it to West Yorkshire Fire Service so that they can see it as well.”

During the Q and A the audience were keen to hear about how the stories were collated.

“Being based at the Old Fire Station we’ve got a group of retired firefighters who are in most weeks, some come in every day. That’s where we started collecting those stories from. And Penny (Rowntree), who’s the first female firefighter in West Yorkshire, used to work for Gipton fire station.”

They were also interested in the stories of the firefighters’ wives which make up part of the story.

“Through other things that we do we pick up different stories. The wives of the firefighters that we work with have been part of that as well so some of the stories about the wives have come out of that.”

Women make up just 7% of all firefighters across the country, compared to the police service where the percentage is 23%.

“West Yorkshire Fire Service have been very supportive of what we’re doing. We’re doing a show up at their headquarters because they would like to encourage more women to come and see it.”

Space2 is a small arts and social change charity based in The Old Fire Station in Gipton, East Leeds, and champions arts and creativity and its power as a social and personal inspiration. 

They run creative groups as well as big shows at the Playhouse and other ways of celebrating creativity. It is project funded, with this project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. 

If you’d like to catch the production the next performance is at Seven Arts in Chapel Allerton on Friday, 30 January, or in West Leeds on Friday, 13 February, at the Interplay Theatre in Armley. You can buy tickets here.

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