| VIVID
STORIES OF RAGING FIRE AT LENHAM!
Some of you who visit the surgery may have noticed that
Court Lodge pond has been refurbished and is now full. What, you may think,
has that to do with the title of this piece.
In February 1935 a fire, which destroyed two shops, damaged two others
and rendered two families homeless, cast a ruddy glow over the snow-swept
village of Lenham in the early hours of a Friday morning.
Men and women, roused from their sleep, grabbed what few possessions they
could and rushed scantily clad from the blazing buildings, shocked by
their narrow escapes.
On or two of them ran barefoot through the snow and were given shelter
by friendly neighbours.
Young Esme Hughes, whose father was postmaster at the time, made a dramatic
telephone call for assistance, and soon after, the telephone lines were
burnt through.
The fire started at 3.00 am. Snow was falling gently and everything was
quiet and still. Mr H Honess was wakened by a strange light playing on
his bedroom window and across the High Street he saw a glow in the shop
occupied by Miss C Wilson, florist and greengrocer. Mr Honess jumped from
his bed and telephoned to the Postmaster to summon the fire brigades.
At the same time, Mrs C Walters, a resident in the Square, noticed the
fire in the florist’s shop and her husband ran across the Square
shouting the alarm. He went to the Post Office and then returned to the
burning shops, to find Mrs Railton in her night clothes and a rug, attempting
to return to her house to rescue her birds, which she was prevented from
doing.
At the same time Mr P Bradford, the outfitter, emerged from his shop carrying
his younger daughter. Mrs Bradford and her elder daughter were also there.
The flames quickly spread from the florist to Mr Bradford’s out-fitters
and almost gutted it. It also damaged the other adjoining shop occupied
by Mrs A Railton, tobacconist.
By this time, nearly everybody who lived in the village had turned out
to see the blaze, which was the biggest in Lenham for 20 years.
The Maidstone Brigade arrived first and the two engines of the Ashford
Brigade arrived soon afterwards.
The supply of water from the hydrant was not good and water was pumped
from the pond at Court Lodge. Indeed it was the water from the pond which
prevented the fire from destroying more property.
Villagers expressed considerable concern as to why Lenham could not have
its own fire brigade – but that is another story, which you can
read next month!
With thanks to G R Chapman for supplying us with this information and
to the KM for their beautifully written copy (1935) which we have adapted
and modified.
A view of the District Stores (now the Saxon Warrior
Chemist Shop) and the High Street as it was in the 1930s. Next to the
draper’s – Bradford’s - (now Maureen’s Florist)
was a barber, Colbran, then Railton’s confectioners. The two Misses
Norrington ran a dressmaking business next door for many years.
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