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| The Great Fire of 1948 |
| Brian
Skeldon has done what he can to collate information about the fire from
School Magazines.
He says: "the cause was finally put down to one of the comparatively recently fitted storage heaters having an electrical fault -- we had lived quite happily without heating since we moved in 1939. But there you are…progress!" The article below appeared in School Magazine No. 27, Summer 1948, written by ESS. Strangely enough, I cannot find a staff member with the initials ESS.
The Great Fire (1948) In our calendar, the page for Tuesday the third of February, 1948, is patterned with marks of burning and stains of sooty water, for that was the date of the fire which destroyed the best part of the School buildings at Darley Abbey Park – and so created for our further torment a whole host of new problems and difficulties.The fire occurred about ten o’clock at night and by breakfast time the next morning the news of it had spread far and wide, varying only in the degree of the damage reported. The actual state of affairs, whilst disappointing to those who had hoped for total destruction, was nevertheless daunting enough to less ruthless spirits, who, resigned to a few years continuation of the previous none-too-pleasant condition were met on their arrival at Darley Abbey Park with a prospect of cheerless squalor. Two classrooms and a staffroom were completely burnt out, two other classrooms were so damaged as to be unusable and the whole building was a confused welter of piled furniture, scattered books and papers, smouldering debris, busy firemen and salvage workers and excited schoolboys, with everywhere the pungent smell of charred wood and wet plaster.Our first task was the clearing and cleaning of the building, and the preparation of emergency accommodation for the four forms whose rooms were no longer available. There was just time for this work to be completed in the week for which the School was closed. And here tribute must be paid to the staff of various Corporation Departments for their prompt and effective assistance and to those boys of the School who voluntarily attended every day to help in the wok of restoration – as well as to Bemrose School, Derby School and Parkfield Cedars School for offers of assistance which, although help was found to be not necessary, were greatly appreciated. It will readily be understood that the effects of the fire on the life and work of the School are severe and serious as they must inevitably continue to be until the damage is repaired or alternative accommodation is provided. Four forms have had to be housed in rooms not very suitable for the purpose, and two of these forms have lost all their possessions—desks and books included. Valuable equipment and materials were destroyed in the staffroom. In short, conditions for both learning and teaching have become even more difficult than before and the flexibility of accommodation is still further restricted. The completion of the new Engineering workshop has had to be postponed.Yet in spite of all these discomforts and difficulties and disappointments, the School seems to have recovered its poise, countering the depressing effect of the gloomy and musty classrooms with the fond and foolish mockery of "Spud ‘Ole" and "Oss ‘Ouse". Soon we hope to rise phoenix-like from the ashes to greater splendour than it has ever known and – lest events should take us unawares – we keep the ear close to the janitorial grape-vine, which ever and anon murmers to us of Radbourne Hall or Allestree Hall, or even Markeaton Hall. In the meantime we thankfully contemplate our overworked bird-in-hand Dining Hall and secretly cast about for sizeable chambers not already appropriated in the cellars of our beloved old mansion.Our conviction, gentle Reader, is that there is no fire without smoke, and smoke – most emphatically – gets in your eyes! ----- You MUST remember this – now is the time to confess !!!!! |