A brief history of fires at Great Linford

Arguably, it seems that not a single village, town or city has escaped at least one calamitous fire in its history, and Great Linford is no exception. At an unspecified time on Thursday, February 26th, 1778, the cry most feared by the village’s inhabitants rang out. “Fire!” Most houses would, of course, have been thatched, and so a single spark, perhaps from a chimney, could quickly catch hold and spread from roof to roof. With no fire brigade to call upon (Newport Pagnell’s brigade was not established until 1855), it would have been up to the community to rally round and do what they could with buckets. Though the particulars of any firefighting efforts are unremarked upon, the account carried in the Northampton Mercury of March 2nd, 1778, paints a grim picture of the aftermath and the impact on the village’s inhabitants. The fact that the blaze was reported as far afield as Leeds and Hampshire also certainly suggests it was considered no ordinary event.

Whereas a Fire broke out in this Town, on Thursday last, by which seven houses, besides Out-Houses, Woodpiles, &c, were entirely consumed, and the Rapidity of the Flames prevented the inhabitants from saving their Household-Goods and Effects, except a small Part, and several Families, unless relieved by the charitable Contributions of the Public, will be entirely ruined: Therefore, at a Meeting of the Parishioners, a Committee was appointed, to solicit and receive Donations of the Public, by which, the Whole of the Contributions will be distributed to the Sufferers without Charge. And it is requested, the benevolent Public will not give to any Collectors, except the Gentlemen of the Committee, who will, in a few Days, wait on the neighbouring towns.

We do not know where in the village this fire occurred, and no further information can be found on the fate of those unfortunate families whose homes were consumed by the flames. It is to be hoped, however, that they received at least some charity, essentially the only help on offer to the poor and destitute at this time. This is not to say insurance was unavailable, and indeed several houses on the High Street were insured against fire at around this time. We know this as two houses on Forge End Row have Sun Alliance fire marks affixed to them, which means the owners had taken out policies.

Fire insurance marks (or plaques) were not just to indicate that a house was covered for damage and loss, but also as a confirmation to the private fire companies maintained by some insurance companies that the property was on their books. In this regard, something of an urban myth has grown up around fire marks, to the effect that if the house was not covered by a policy from the attending company (or covered by a different company), then they would stand by and let the house burn. This does not seem to be true, as aside from the moral and ethical considerations of such a policy, it would also be terrible publicity. Besides which, on more practical terms, letting fires burn out of control in the age of wooden and thatched buildings was a particularly bad idea. There was every chance that an uncontained fire would spread to a building that was covered, so it seems more than likely that the lack of a fire mark did not automatically exclude your house from rescue.

Fire mark 408997 on Great Linford High Street.

From the numbers inscribed into the fire marks, we can find the original records of the insurance policies taken out. Policy number 408997 was taken out on January 25th, 1779, by a Richard Bakehouse, a farmer, for what is now number 27 on the High Street. The sum insured was £100, with the additional note that the house was occupied by widow Bakehouse. It should be noted that the name Bakehouse is likely an error by the scribe, who misheard the name. The more likely name is Bacchus, a family strongly associated with the village, and specifically The Nags Head. The other fire insurance mark is numbered 404775, which was taken out on October 28th, 1778, by Hannah Hobbs, a shopkeeper.

We do not know if the Sun Alliance company employed any firefighters in the vicinity of Great Linford, but the existence of the fire marks certainly suggests as much, though it is interesting to note that the policies taken out by Richard Bakehouse and Hannah Hobbs were purchased shortly after the Great Fire of 1778. In fact, with the exception of another policy taken out by Richard in 1777, all the policies recorded by the Sun Alliance for properties in Great Linford were purchased after the fire. Perhaps the trauma of the event had focused minds on the need for insurance, or an enterprising insurance agent had sensed an opportunity.

Thankfully, in the decades following the great fire of 1778, no further accounts are to be discovered of fires in the parish, and in fact, it is not until 1839 that we find word of what appeared to be an arsonist on the loose in the county. Under the headline, “Second incendiary fire at Newport Pagnell”, the Bucks Herald of December 9th reports that a great deal of damage had been caused to a rick yard (a storage area for harvested crops) at Tickford Park, the second such occurrence in recent days. Suspicions of a serial arsonist were further aroused by the fact that, soon after, an attempt was made to set alight the property of Mr Thomas Hawley of Great Linford.

In this case, the fire was discovered by neighbours and extinguished before serious harm was done, but the Bucks Herald also adds the intriguing note that “Some clue, we understand, has been obtained, so as to lead to the apprehension of the parties in this case.”  However, if arrests were made, there seems to be no follow-up story, though over several weeks, the story was picked up by numerous other newspapers, including The Weekly Chronicle of London, which repeated the basic facts of the story in more lurid prose, including the observation that the fire at Mr Hawley’s property had been achieved “by the same diabolical means” as the earlier attacks.

Thomas Hawley had gotten away lightly with the attack of 1839, but his luck would not hold in 1856, when the following story was reported by a number of papers, including the Bedford Mercury of April 12th.

Fire – On Thursday, the 3rd instant, the inhabitants of this village were greatly alarmed by the discovery that the dwelling house of Mr Thomas Hawley, grocer, &c., was on fire; smoke was observed to issue from the roof, which consisted of thatch. An alarm was instantly given, and a messenger immediately rode off to Newport Pagnell for the fire brigade. The flames spread rapidly, and as Mr Hawley had several Ibs. of gunpowder in the store room. It was deemed improper to attempt the remove the goods from that part of the premises. The dwelling house and much of the stock and furniture was destroyed, and an adjoining house occupied by a widow named Sharp was consumed, but most of her furniture was removed uninjured. The Newport fire brigade soon arrived with the best engine, and speedily extinguished the flames. The fire was occasioned by the flue of a copper, in which water was being heated to scald a pig, taking fire, and igniting the thatch. Mr Hawley’s house and shop were insured by the Phoenix Fire Office, and we understand that office has met the claim in a very prompt and liberal manner.

This represents the first fire in the village whose location we can positively identify. Thomas Hawley’s premises occupied the same plot as the house known as The Old Post Office. This was built on the ruins of the earlier house. It is also very clear from the photograph below that the adjacent house, occupied at the time by widow Sharp, was partly rebuilt, with the upper portion being restored with bricks.  It is known that one of the roof timbers has an inscription by the builder, which reads, “This roof was raised by J Bird for the hall of W. A Uthwatt in the year of our lord 1856.” J Bird would be John Bird, who ran a building and carpentry business in the village.

The Old Post Office, right, the previous house on this plot having burnt down in 1856.

Our next fire was a considerable one, doing great damage to farm buildings belonging to The Black Horse Inn. Croydon’s Weekly Standard newspaper of February 19th, 1859, contains a detailed report which can be read on this website’s page on The Black Horse Inn, but in brief, seven outbuildings and a great deal of agricultural equipment was lost, though thanks to the quick witted and brave actions of a 16-year-old servant girl, the animals, including horses and cows were saved. The newspaper offers a curious postscript to the story, that someone identified as William Emerton, of Broughton, had several times wilfully attempted to stop the supply of water through the fire brigade’s hose by placing his foot on it. The article makes no attempt to connect William Emerton with the alleged arson, but his behaviour would certainly make him a prime suspect.

It seems that someone had it in for The Black Horse Inn, as just a few years later, another suspicious fire broke out, affecting the remnants of the outbuildings that had survived the previous fire. The fire was discovered in good time, having started in the thatch of a cow hovel. A message was sent for the Newport Pagnell fire brigade to attend, but before they arrived, the fire had been brought under control as there was plenty of assistance on hand and a good supply of water. Croydon’s Weekly Standard of May 4th, 1861, offered the theory that the fire “was strongly suspected to be the work of an incendiary.”

The next case of fire occurred in 1889, and once again involved alleged arson on a farm, though in this instance, the perpetrator, a thirteen-year-old lad named Arthur Daniels from Newport Pagnell was apprehended and confessed. Brought before the magistrates on Monday, the 12th of August for an initial hearing, a great deal of circumstantial evidence was presented, placing Arthur at work in the vicinity of a hay rick located in a field owned by his employer Thomas Brafield of Wood End Farm. However, toward the end of the proceedings, a police constable White presented testimony that Arthur had tearfully confessed, saying, “I set fire to the rick sir, with the matches I bought at Mr Lines at Bradwell, to light some cigars.” Constable White also stated that Arthur had committed this confession to writing.

An open and shut case, surely, but when in November the case came to court, considerable doubt was cast on the confession and its extraction by Constable White, who was accused in court of some underhanded tactics, having failed in effect to clarify with Arthur if the confession amounted to an admission of arson or an accident. Having heard that Arthur had assisted in fighting the fire, the jury was inclined toward believing it was an accident, and Arthur was acquitted with a stern warning from the Judge to be more careful in future.

The Black Horse Inn was the location again of a fire on the evening of Saturday January 25th, 1890, though unlike the previous blaze that had done so much damage, matters in this case were quickly brought under control with water from the canal and the help of the pub’s patrons. The result was that only one room was damaged, and a quantity of hops lost.

In 1902, a calamity almost struck the Manor House, as reported in the Bucks Standard of January 11th.

FIRE AT THE MANOR HOUSE – About twelve o’clock on Thursday morning, January 9th, a maid in the employ of W. Uthwatt, Esq., of Great Linford Manor, had occasion to go upstairs, when she discovered the presence of a fire in the roof above the nursery. Alarm was quickly given, and a number of willing helpers from the village came forward to assist. In the meantime, a message was sent to Newport Pagnell for the fire brigade, the call being about 12.25. Within about ten minutes the brigade, under the superintendence of Captain Coales, with their No. 1 engine, were quickly off to the scene of the fire. On arrival however, it was soon seen that the fire was located under the roof, which was partly covered with slates and tiles, and was therefore confined, so the attention was directed to the wood-work. But in case the fire might break through, the hose was fixed to the engine and connected with the pond in front of the house. A sufficient supply of water, however, was obtained from a tank at the top of the house, water, in this instance, not being so essential as the axe, the latter being freely used by the firemen in cutting away the burning beams and woodwork of the roof, which had got alight. Ultimately their efforts were rewarded with success, for the fire was got under without bringing the engine into use, thanks to the foresight of the captain of the brigade, who by this thoughtful act and the response of the men, saved much property that would have been damaged by water. Some idea of the actual damage caused may be gathered when it is stated that it will cost about £200 to put the property in proper repair.

The damage, estimated at £200, is likely to equate to about £20,000 in modern terms, so does seem to have been quite significant, and indeed, if not for the fortuitous discovery of the fire by the maid, the park might look quite different today.

Not so fortunate was Major Harold Edward Churton Doyne-Ditmas. He and his family had moved into Ivy House, now known as Linford Lodge, at some time around 1908, but in the early hours of Monday, March 24th, 1919, a terrible fire broke out. With some irony, it had begun in the smoking room, suggesting the culprit was a smouldering cigarette, cigar or pipe. Having evacuated his family and servants, Harold drove to Newport Pagnell to fetch the fire brigade, but by the time help arrived at around 5.30 in the morning, a full hour and a half after the blaze had first been detected, much of the building was alight, and only a fraction of the contents could be saved. By the time the fire brigade departed at 6.30pm, only the “morning room” remained unscathed. The fire was not without its casualties, three members of the fire brigade having been struck and injured to varying degrees by falling masonry when one of the chimneys collapsed. For more details on the life of Major Harold Edward Churton Doyne-Ditmas, please see the page on Linford Lodge.

In later years, farms continued to suffer more than their fair share of fires. In 1946, Wood Farm was the scene of a major blaze, that did serious damage to a large thatched barn that contained dairy machines. Then in 1959, the first of two devastating blazes that afflicted the Nagington family broke out in the grounds of their home Grey Gables, the name that the Old Rectory was then known by. The Nagingtons had been running a poultry farm from the house, as well as nearby Great Linford House, and on Wednesday, November 6th, a large single-story wooden poultry house, complete with electric heating equipment, was destroyed, with the loss of 2000 hens. A second fire in May 1960 came close to spreading to the thatched roof of the Nags Head pub, and was prevented only by the prompt actions of fire brigades from Newport Pagnell and Wolverton. There is a biography of the Nagintons and additional details on the fires on the page about Great Linford House.

The early 1960s were a bad time to be a farmer in Great Linford. In January 1960, a number of pigsties and their unfortunate occupants were consumed by fire at Lodge Farm, followed in 1962 by a blaze at Church Farm, which had broken out near an "electric grain drying plant.” Lodge Farm was back in the news in October 1963, with a hay rick fire described by the Wolverton Express of the 25th as a “blazing inferno” requiring the attention of three fire engines.

Hay rick on fire at Lodge Farm in 1963.

Finally, yet another rick fire, which seemed to be a perennial danger for farmers, broke out at Windmill Farm on the evening of Wednesday, June 10th, 1964, destroying 15 tons of baled hay. This, though, seemed to signal the end of this run of bad luck for the farmers of Great Linford, but it was also close to the end of farming in Great Linford, as the new City of Milton Keynes would soon swallow up their land.
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This brings to an end this brief history of fires in Great Linford, but if you know of any other stories, please add a comment to this page.