On this day – Horsham fire destroys buildings

On this day (August 28) back in 1912 Horsham suffered probably its worst fire when the tannery block of building, near Brighton Road, were decimated in an overnight fire.

The damage was estimated at nearly £20,000 back then, equating to around £2m today!

Only a cottage and a barn, plus a tall chimney (as seen in the photo below), remained after the fire wreaked havoc.

The buildings had been up for auction the previous February, but ended up being sold privately to P. Margetson and Co. of Bermondsey.

Since then the new owners had invested a lot of money in extensive renovations and improvements and there was £2,000 of new machinery and around 60 tons of leather on site.

Just after midnight, PCs Hemsley and Evans, who had just come on duty, noticed an unusual brightness and went off to investigate.

At the same time, Edward Brown, a young man employed at a club in the Carfax, also saw the light and cycled to the Fire Station in North Street to give the alarm.

The police arrived at the blaze and realised the fire was spreading very quickly. They evacuated a lady and her dog living in the cottage attached to the tannery.

Such was the ferocity of the flames the cottages in nearby Tanyard Lane looked to be under threat, so residents began to move their furniture to safety.

As the West Sussex County Times reported afterwards: “The glow of the fire was reflected in all the windows of the Clarence Road houses, and the sight was magnificent but appalling.”

The Fire Brigade and police worked hard to quell the fire. Thankfully, there was no wind to make the situation worse and the surrounding houses were safe.

By two o’clock the firemen concentrated their efforts on the main building containing the machinery and on the timbers that had fallen to the ground.

Because of the time of the blaze, most Horsham folk only realised there had been a major incident when they woke up.

As a result, large numbers of people visited the scene that day to see the blackened debris and huge iron girders where a thriving business had been.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the tannery never recovered and the site was sold to West Sussex County Council.

In his Horsham histories, former Museum Curator Jeremy Knight says that the iron bark barn, which survived the fire, eventually was moved to Amberly Museum.