Last month you may have read in Alan Fawcitt’s piece about the terrible fires that sometimes destroyed many buildings in a village. It was a constant fear for the residents. This photo looks pretty dull, but it shows a sort of emergency system against fire. This wall still stands on the High St. opposite the entrance to Bourneys Manor Close. The two poles are ready on hooks for anyone to grab in an emergency. As you can see from the insert, there are large hooks on the end and the idea was that if you saw a thatched roof on fire, or even smouldering, you could grab the poles and pull the thatch off before it spread. Presumably there were other locations around the village with such poles but this photo captures a little bit of history, that is long gone.
March 2021
