After the frosts and dry cold winds of April let’s hope that we are into a normal May. That might enable us to seriously think about starting the barbecue season, which has been delayed by the chilly April evenings for many of us. However, what we don’t want are incidents that one plot holder experienced in April 1834, where someone was clearly not keeping an eye on the fire:
“On Monday, while a party was carousing in one of the gardens on the Hungerhills, the summer house which they had just left, by some means took fire, and maugre [despite] all their efforts, was so burnt that the roof fell in, and their jollity for the afternoon was actually burnt out.”
– Nottinghamshire Review
Fortunately, no one appears to have been hurt, unlike Mrs Trueman in September 1837 when she dozed off next to the fire:
“On Sunday morning, Mrs Charlotte Trueman, an old woman, accidentally set fire to her clothes, whilst sleeping by the fireplace at the summer house of a garden on the Hungerhills. She states that she suddenly turned dizzy, and does not know exactly how it happened. Though seriously burned, she is doing well.”
– Nottingham Review
One hundred years later, according to the Nottingham Journal of 21 March 1938, an allotment on the Hungerhill Gardens occupied by Thomas Smith suffered losses as a result of fire:
“The flames spread from a summer house to an adjoining greenhouse and both buildings were completely destroyed. A quantity of plants and garden tools were also burned. A backdraught from the boiler in the greenhouse stated to have been the cause of the fire.”
So, if you’re planning any carousing at the weekend or a snooze in your summerhouse, please be careful or your jollity will turn to misery. Enjoy your spring gardening and, after all the worries and restrictions of the past two years – stay safe.
