A VINTAGE fire engine has made a likely final journey to its spiritual home.

The Victorian appliance was transported to the Old Fire Station in Alresford, 80 years after the last similar engine left the base.

The Merryweather Steamer Pump Appliance was loaded onto a truck at the Alresford Fire Station and taken several hundred yards to the Old Fire Station on Broad Street where it will be the centrepiece of a new museum.

Roy Gentry, of the Alresford Town Trust which will open the museum in the spring, said: "The move went very well. There were about 50 people there. We had a procession up West Street and down Broad Street and stopped the traffic. It is back in its home.

"Lots of people were taking photographs as we drove it down to the old station, unloaded it and pushed it in."

The original plan had been to bring in two horses to pull the engine but there were fears the wooden wheels would have been unable to cope.

Mr Gentry said: "We didn't think a wheel would have come off but it might have splintered and we would have ended up turning a nice day into a disaster."

The engine will be available for the public to have a closer look in the Heritage Open Weekend of September 15-16.

The engine itself was never based at the old fire station. it did service on the nearby Tichborne Estate, before being acquired by Hankin's Garage and then the fire service.