Fire damages 600-year-old pub

Published: 5:02 PM October 10, 2008

Updated: 3:16 AM February 23, 2021

FIRE threatened to engulf a 600 year old pub on Thursday night. Most of the residents in Great Bardfield reported seeing the blaze, which started in the chimney of The Bell Inn pub, situated right in the centre of the village. Firefighters battled for th

FIRE threatened to engulf a 600 year old pub on Thursday night.

Most of the residents in Great Bardfield reported seeing the blaze, which started in the chimney of The Bell Inn pub, situated right in the centre of the village.

Firefighters battled for three hours to bring it under control and, using an aerial platform called in from Colchester, the flames were dampened by 11pm.

Sub officer Steve Morris, from Thaxted fire station, said: "This was a really old building, and within the chimney affected by the fire were several smaller chimneys, that at one stage had been used to heat different parts of the property, but now have been blocked off.

"So, before we could get to tackling the seat of the fire we had to remove a lot of nesting materials and parts of the older chimneys by cutting up and out through the walls of the pub."

A pub spokesman said: "The fire was not too serious, but we did suffer quite a lot of smoke damage, but we will be open for business as usual.