Nearly every town has a least one “Great Fire” heralding from an age when wood, thatch, wattle and open fires were the norm in buildings. As we have seen with poor Robin Barnes the sleepy watchman it was an ever present danger. In this case a town fire of 1870 evokes memories of the Great Fire of Spalding of 1715 as related in the South Holland Magazine of 1870:
“Fire! Fire! Fire! Such, no doubt, was the alarm given in the year 1715 when the red crawling serpent destroyed nearly the whole of the south side of the Market Place, and such certainly was the cry on the night of 27th March (1870), by a man named Clarke. Never since the year before mentioned has there been such a complete destruction of property as took place on the premises of Messrs Hobson and Son’s drapery establishment.”
The fire of 1870 benefitted from low levels of wind therefore the fire was contained to the total destruction of the drapers shop and contents amounting to £1100. The Spalding Fire Brigade struggled to get proper supply of water to contain and quench the flames and a critical crowd gathered. Luckily no lives were lost. But what of the earlier fire of 1715.
On 2nd April 1715 a thatched workshop in the Abbey Yard caught fire as the local blacksmith William Reeve was casting brass or copper. The fire raged through the town centre and in the space of three to four hours 84 houses were burned down along with about half the shops and business premises in the town. Over 60 families lost everything. The fire was prevented from spreading by a sailor who had been an engineer, blowing up houses as a fire break with gunpowder to prevent its spread. Sadly he lost his life in doing this, but was the only life lost.
William Reeve was “so sensibly afflicted and affected by the misery he had brought upon his native town and neighbours that he immediately left the same and has not been seen since.”[1]
[1] Stamford Mercury 1715.
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