In my tribute to Bert Paine, I mentioned spending a most enjoyable afternoon at the former Lancashire County Fire Control at Agecroft in August 1968.   During that visit, as well as seeing the workings of the control itself, I was shown quite a number of very interesting fire brigade related photographs.  At the start of 2007, when I embarked on my research for the History of Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service, I made contact with the current Fire Control at Swinton to try and ascertain if those pictures were still in existence.  After some detective work, I discovered that the pictures were still held by Greater Manchester Fire Service, but I was advised that unfortunately I would not be able to access them for further use, firstly as they were the copyright to a Mr. Clifford Ashton, and secondly because it was also GMCs policy not to make them available outside of the service.

As the saying goes, when one door closes another one opens.  The person who was assisting me at that time thought that Mr. Ashton would by now be a very old man and that I may have difficulty tracing him.   Though I cannot now recall the exact sequence of events, I very soon made contact with Mr. & Mrs. Ashton who very kindly invited me to their home.  There I did indeed meet an elderly gentleman, but one who most certainly belied his 93 years.  On my arrival, I was handed almost a hundred double-sided filing cards each bearing details of around 20 incidents that Mr. Ashton had attended from 1934 ~ 1994.   The majority of the incidents were in the North West, but some were much further afield including the disastrous fire at York Minster in 1984.   I was invited to borrow these cards so that I could copy all the information from them.

However, when I returned those cards, I was totally unprepared for the the next surprise that awaited me.   For the first time ever, Mr. Ashton granted unlimited access to his darkroom where all his many thousands of negatives were filed and stored plus the option of borrowing and scanning whichever negatives I wanted.  I find it difficult to express just what such kindness has meant to me.  Accordingly over the last 18 months I have been able to meet up with Mr. Ashton on a number of occasions to return material and borrow further from his archives.

I can only describe Mr. Ashton as one of the most generous people I have ever met and although I may have been the only one at the time to have access to his entire work, I do know that he regularly donated pictures to many fire stations over the years including the collection at Agecroft.  I have also come across one or two enthusiasts who in the past had written to him regarding pictures that had appeared in newspapers and he would generally send copies out at no charge.

It was, therefore, with great sadness that I learned of Mr. Ashton's sudden death on 2nd June 2008.  Although I only had the privilege of knowing him for a short time, I came to respect him as one of life's true gentlemen.  I thoroughly enjoyed listening to his accounts of getting out of bed on a very cold night to go and photograph "another mill fire".  He was undoubtedly highly respected by the various fire brigades.  Having undertaken most of his work before the days of Health & Safety legislation he has left an historical photographic record never likely to be repeated.

I hope in the future to be able to pay further tribute by including more of Mr. Ashton's work on this website.

My love and prayers go to Mrs. Ashton, who has already promised me further help, so that more of Clifford's work can be shared.   God bless.

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