Fire
In 1831 Jackson’s Oxford Journal reported on several attempts to start fires on Steventon farms.
Firstly, at a farm belonging to Robert Lyford and then a farm owned by Richard Tyrrell – where – ‘the destructive object of the incendiary was defeated by the actions of a servant’.
A third attempt was made with a fire starting in a barn owned by Mr Tyrrell and the fire lasted three or four hours consuming seven cottages, outbuildings and hay ricks. October 1902 a fire destroyed Manor Barn and neighbouring trees etc.
The Great Fire of Steventon 1929
In 1929 the so called ‘great fire of Steventon’ happened. A spark from a farm machine set light a thatched roof of a derelict cottage and this quickly spread to a nearby barn and then on to a farmhouse and a row of 17th century cottages. Villagers and the Abingdon Fire Brigade tried to stop the fire and then sent for help from the Didcot and Northbourne Fire Brigade. Their men were summonsed using, for the first time, a recently installed electric bell. Unfortunately, the only lorry available to pull the pump was a cement lorry that could only manage 10mph. When they did arrive, a trench was dug under the rail lines enabling the Didcot pump to get water from 700 yards away from 12.30 to 4 o’clock.
Despite their best efforts five cottages, bearing the dates 1616, 1630 and 1639 were destroyed leaving 20 people homeless - the Nobes, the Hills, the Blissetts, the Broads and the Prior families. Efforts to remove furniture etc from the burning homes were hampered by a piano getting stuck in a doorway.
A relief fund was formed to help those who had lost everything, with £53 14s being raised within a week, including £16 4s from a collection at Steventon Church, and Steventon band held concerts to raise money for the victims of the fire.
Cottages burnt down in the Great Fire of Steventon
