Hastings County Borough Fire Brigade on the coast in East Sussex was formed in 1948 & lasted until the Fire Service Reforms Act of 1974 which disbanded all county borough fire brigades & put them under regional county control! Hastings was a small county borough with only 2 fire stations & covering an area of 12 square miles only, a busy seaside resort though! 

The first cap badges of Hastings were unusual, basically because the brigade was issued BLANK home office stars & a number of borough police collar badges were supplied & put on the home office stars by the brigade themselves. Some of the collar badges had the lugs split & spread through the holes made in the star in outward directions, others had the lugs threaded through intact & slightly pinched together & this variation has “blow holes” but ALL original Hastings Fire Brigade cap badges were made with police collar badges. Any totally flat back variations you see on the market are usually later copies from London Badge & Button Company or fakes produced by Ray Bennett in the 1970’s.

This variation is the fully pressed home office star variation where the 2 holes have been punched neatly through the back as several brigades had & the collar badge attached with its lugs cut off short & either glued or pushed through & stuck from the 2 “blow holes”. This is the first pattern 6mm bold shield & a very prominent cap badge for a collection making it stand out by the shear size of the central shield collar badge ! The badge was issued for only 10 years when the flat odd shaped shield 2nd pattern cap badge replaced it in 1958 & remained until 1974, a total of 16 years & much easier badge to obtain.