Flames alerted people living in St. Georges’ Street to a fire raging in the home of a local carpenter early one morning. Luckily no one was harmed, although much damage was caused.
“At two o’clock on Tuesday morning the inhabitants of St. George’s-street in this place were alarmed with the cry of fire, and it was found that flames were raging with great force in the ground floor of Mr. Maugham, cabinet-maker. The fire-engines were promptly obtained; and through the well-directed exertions of the neighbours, the conflagration was subdued in an hour, though not until very considerable damage was done to the house, which is the property of Mr. Alderman Coddington, and fortunately was insured. Mr. Maugham, before retiring to bed, had been writing a letter at a bureau in the sitting-room, and it is imagined that the fire proceeded from the spark or snuff of a candle, which had been unobservedly shut up in the piece of furniture – as when the alarm was given, it was found that the bureau was almost entirely consumed, and the flames had extended to the ceiling of the room, which was also burnt through. But for the discovery of the fire by Miss Batson (a lodger in the house), who slept immediately over the apartment in which it began, the whole house must have been in flames in a few minutes; and as it was, the inmates escaped with difficulty in their nightclothes. A clock, and nearly all the other articles of furniture, were destroyed, as well as 3l. in money, which had been deposited in the bureau. Mr. Maugham’s circumstances making the loss severe to him, a subscription has been opened for his relief.”
The Stamford Mercury, 9th November, 1827.