Hot History: The Great Fire of Northampton 1675

Everyone has heard about the Great Fire of London – but what about the Great Fire of Northampton…or Marlborough…or Blandford Forum?  Fire has frequently wrought destruction on towns, cities and country houses, and this was particularly the case in the 17th century.  Clive and John discuss why this should have been—what caused the fires, what the consequences were for the places concerned and how they were rebuilt.  Northampton was a spectacular example, not only because over 80% of the town centre was destroyed but (as John has discovered from rarely seen drawings) ambitious designs were commissioned by the Earl of Northampton who was closely concerned in the town’s welfare.  

A contemporary account describes the progress of the fire, as the bells of the church tolled in the heat:

All Hallows Bells jangled their last and doleful Knell, presently after the Chimes had gone Twelve in a more pleasant Tune: And soon after the wind which did flie swifter than Horsemen, carried the Fire near the Dern-Gate, at least half a Mile from the place where it began, and into St Giles-street in the East, and consumed every house therein, save one, whose end-Walls were higher than the Roof, and by them preserved. 

Afterwards, however, phoenix really did arise from the ashes, thanks in part to the 1,000 tons of timber that Charles II donated towards the rebuilding of the church.  When Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe and an inveterate traveller who may also have been a government spy, visited Northampton in 1724, he declared it to be the ‘handsomest and best built town in all this part of England… finely rebuilt with brick and stone, and the streets made spacious and wide’.