The Town Hall fire of 1933

The arches underneath the Town Hall were home to the fire brigade until moving to its present site in 1946. The firemen were therefore on hand one Saturday afternoon in 1933 to deal with an alert on their own doorstep when the wooden clock tower that then adorned the top of the building caught fire on October 31st. 

The market was held in the town centre at that time and although most traders were packing up and going home, the stalls had not been cleared away. The fire was extinguished although the clock tower was destroyed and an investigation later revealed that a gas lamp inside the cupola had overheated and caused the outbreak. During the fire fighting, Fireman Charles Moisey climbed into the tower with a branch hose to tackle the flames but was overcome by thick smoke and would have been suffocated had not colleagues pulled him out by his feet, the only method they could employ to rescue him.

The fire attracted many sightseers who flocked around and watched the firemen at work, some with cameras which were rare in those days. The picture above was taken by an unknown observer who later hand-tinted the print to produce this dramatic shot and although we cannot see the faces of the onlookers, you can feel their excitement at being present on such a dramatic occasion. The tower was never replaced and the clock was later reinstalled on the pediment below where it can be seen today. 

Ironically, it would appear that it was the gas lamp in the turret used to illuminate the clock that overheated and caused the fire of 1933.

REVISED OCTOBER 2016

See also

Charles Moisey and the Fire Brigade     Town Hall clock to be restored

Go to:     Main Index    Villages Index