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Further Fires
Clare Martin
The most devastating fires to affect Great Horwood in times gone by are described in The Great Fire of Great Horwood but there were other serious blazes which damaged or destroyed major landmarks in Great Horwood and Singleborough:
Singleborough Mill
For much of the 19th century Great Horwood and Singleborough could boast three windmills. Now there are none and this is partly due to fire. Windmills were always at high risk of fire from flour explosions, lightning strike and friction caused by high winds working the sails too fast. It was the latter that destroyed the windmill and steam mill that once stood north-east of the crossroads of the Bletchley and Nash Roads (now the A421 and the B4033) and was known as Singleborough Mill.
The windmill was an open trestle post mill very similar to the one pictured below. Older local inhabitants interviewed in 1939 remembered the mill being black with four black sails which were ‘low enough to kill a pig’.
Singleborough Mill
For much of the 19th century Great Horwood and Singleborough could boast three windmills. Now there are none and this is partly due to fire. Windmills were always at high risk of fire from flour explosions, lightning strike and friction caused by high winds working the sails too fast. It was the latter that destroyed the windmill and steam mill that once stood north-east of the crossroads of the Bletchley and Nash Roads (now the A421 and the B4033) and was known as Singleborough Mill.
The windmill was an open trestle post mill very similar to the one pictured below. Older local inhabitants interviewed in 1939 remembered the mill being black with four black sails which were ‘low enough to kill a pig’.
Open trestle post mill, Nutley, East Sussex. © Oast House Archive. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic Licence.
At some point during the mid-19th century a steam mill was added to the site but on 1st September 1876 both mills burnt down. The Bucks Herald reported:
Shortly before one o’clock on Friday morning, the 1st instant, a fire broke out at Mr Reeve’s windmill situate on the Common, Great Horwood, burning it to the ground. The Winslow fire brigade with their engine were soon in attendance, but, owing to the scarcity of water, were unable to do more than keep the fire off adjoining buildings. It appears that during the previous day the machinery for stopping the mill had by some means become broken, and Mr Reeves had placed a large piece of timber against the sails to keep them from moving, but during the night the wind was so strong that it blew the piece of timber down, and worked the sails round at such a terrific rate as to set the machinery on fire by friction.
The steam mill was rebuilt and used until about 1900 but the windmill was not replaced.
Great Horwood Mill
Disaster also befell the windmill that once stood at Mill Farm on the Winslow Road. It was a smock mill and had once stood somewhere along Pilch Lane where it had been severely damaged by a hurricane in December 1841. It was sold and moved to Mill Farm in about 1843. Joseph Keen was the miller, succeeded by Alfred Willmer who was the miller from 1859 to the 1890s. Willmer installed all the latest machinery but in 1877 or 1878 the mill was hit by a storm. A hurricane tore off one of the sails and blew it across the road into the fields opposite. At the same time, the mill was struck by lightning and the mill was destroyed by wind and fire. Alfred Willmer suffered head injuries from timber or gear falling from the mill and he is said to have never fully recovered his health. The mill was rebuilt as a brick tower windmill and continued in use until around 1916. It was mostly demolished during the Second World War.
Mill Farm Windmill, early 20th century
Six Lords Inn
Headline from Buckingham Advertiser, 1 March 1947.
Another local landmark to be destroyed by fire was the former Six Lords Inn in Singleborough. Situated on the south side of the Bletchley to Buckingham road (now the A421), the Six Lords was a beautiful Elizabethan inn, its name recalling the division of the Lordship of Singleborough into six in 1606. It had been built alongside the old Roman road as a place for Welsh drovers and their livestock to rest during their long journey on the hoof to market in London. The Elizabethan inn was later extended using similar building techniques and matching reed thatch, making it a very large and eye-catching building.
The Six Lords Inn, Singleborough
The building ceased to be an inn during the 1930s and became a private residence until it was burnt to the ground on the night of Sunday 23rd February 1947. An explosion, believed to have been caused by a bottled gas cooker, destroyed the Elizabethan section of the inn and set fire to the rest of the building. It was a freezing cold night with ‘30 degrees of frost’ (minus 16°C), which hampered the firemen’s efforts to bring the blaze under control. The Bucks Herald reported:
Drenched firemen from Winslow and Buckingham had their uniforms frozen on them as they fought the flames. Ice on a pond was broken for water and eventually the hoses froze so much that they could not be rolled up.
Several thousand pounds worth of damage was done, valuable antique furniture burnt and all but the lower part of a newer wing of the building destroyed. However, the residents, former ARP Wardens Mr and Mrs Craig, escaped the building unharmed and some of their furniture was rescued by Singleborough and Great Horwood residents and by German prisoners of war from the RAF camp.
No vestige of the Six Lords remains today.
No vestige of the Six Lords remains today.
Sources:
Buckingham Advertiser, Bucks Herald.
© Clare Martin, 2012.
Buckingham Advertiser, Bucks Herald.
© Clare Martin, 2012.