The Sun.
London, England, 1841-05-31 00:00:00

kLARNIING AN!) DESTRUCTIVE
FIRE IN BERMINGIIAM.
BIRMIN C ILA FRIDAY, MAY 28.—A most alarming and
disastrous conflagration took place in this town last night.
About five o'clock e. M. the inhabitants of Broad-street, one
of the busiest throughfares and most manufacturing districts of
•he town, were suddenly disturbed in their severalt' avocations
ay a re'ort that a fire had broken out upon the premises of Mr.
.V. lliffe, an extensive coach-budder, carrying on business in
-hat locality. It appears that about. the hour above men-
ioned the workmen in Mr. Iliffe's employ were engaged in a
yard between the front show-room and the back workshop iu
" r.nging," as it is termed, or fixing the tire of a carriage-wheel.
For this purpose it is necessary that the iron at the time it is
laced around the circumference of the wheel should be red-
hot, and in that condition attached to the circle of woodwork.
Whether blameable or not. is not yet ascertained, but the fire
at which the tire was heated is said to have been unusually
high, and communicated with a quantity of timber in a yard
immediately adjoining, belonging to Mr. Bolton, an extensive
timber-merchant. The Norwich, Birmingham, District, Bar-
racks, and town engines, and others belonging to various pri-
vate establishments, were speedily on the spot. All efforts to
stay the progress of the devouring element were, however, for
a time, notwithstanding the abundance of water in the neigh-
bourhood, comparatively unavailing. The stock of dry timber
in Mr. Bolton's yard, amounting in value to about 4,5001.,
had by this time become almost one mass of flame, and the
firemen were unable, from local difficulties. to obtain com-
manding situations from which they could with efficiency
discharge their engines. By this time, Mr. Commissioner
Burgess, Major Shaw, Mr. G. Redfern, Superintendent
Stephens, and about WO of the police force had arrived.
Seeing that the confined situation of Mr. Bolton's yard
prevented the efficient working of the engines, it was
determined to destroy a long outer wall 15 feet high, arid
every description of ‘• battering-ram" was used for this pu•••
pose. Unfortunately, after a protracted assault, the wall, con-
trary to expectation, fell outwardly, and several of the police
were severely injured. One poor fellow, a labouring man,
who was found covered with brick., was removed to the hos-
pital in a hopeless state, and others are deemed in a preca-
rious condition, but up to this time no death has oecurred.
Although the premises of Mr. Bolton received the greatest in-
jury, yet other inhabitants and millowners of the neighbour-
hood were grext*ifferees. A.-grest, port ion of Basket vtli•44l
(so termed because of the site being formerly in the occupa-
tion of the celebrated Baskerville) was destroyed ; and, I re.
Bret to say, that the chief tenant, a renter named Power, was
uninsured, and will consequently be a great loser. The manu
factory of the Messrs. Phipson, pin-manufacturers, adjoined
this building, but. owing to the promptness and great presence
of mind of Mr. S. Phipson, although in the most
imminent danger, it sustained comparatively little damage.
The great Union •trill, occupied in the rolling of metals, manu-
facture of glass, &c., and situated at the back of the premises
of .Messrs. Iliffe and Bolton, had a most extraordinary escape
from destruction. Notwithstanding that a considerable space
of ground intervened, and that the canal ran between the fire
Ind this building, it was more than once on fire ; and it is said
by eye-witnesses, that had it not been for the vigilant attention
of a young gentleman named Lloyd, connected with one of
'he fire-offices, the mill must have fallen a prey to the flames.
The damage done to dwelling-houses, factories, the timber-
yard, and other property, is estimated at from 12,0001. to
14,000/., the greater part of which is insured, but many par-
ties will be very heavy sufferers. So extensive a fire has not
been witnessed in Birmingham, except at the riots in 1791 and
1839, by the oldest inhabitant Lying. The alarm which it
created may be judged of from the fact that fire-engines came
from Walsall, Dudley, Wolverhampton, West Bromwich, and
even from Coventry, and that all were in full play before the
flames were extinguished. The number of people for a time
thrown out of service by this unexpected calamity will be con-
siderable—and that, too, at a period when the Birmingham
workpeople can ill afford to lose one moment's employment.
Trade is at the very lowest ebb, with no prospect of an influx
of the tide.

AWFUL STORM.
WOKINCHAM, 3IAY 28. —Last night the Forest Division of
Berkshire was visited by one of the most terrific thunder and
hail storms which this country has ever witnessed. The sky,
which for the last two days had been unusually bright and sul-
try, began about eight o'clock in the evening to present symp •
toms of a change, and to forebode the coming tempest. As
the night closed in, the atmosphere became more close and
oppressive, and masses of dark and threatening clouds began
to collect from the south-east, illuminated almost incessantly
with vivid sheets of lightning, accompanied by the most ter •
rifle crashes of thunder. Up to this time there bad been
no fall of any kind ; but about half-past nine—
without a minute's warning—the most destructive shower
of hail was discharged, that it has ever been cur lot to
record. We have been favoured with an account of the storm
by one family who were spectators of the scene. They were
sitting at the tea-table, and the servant, who had fastened the
shutters in two of the rooms was pi eparing to close the others,
when a crash was heard, as if the side of the house had fallen
in, and in an instant the shutters were burst open and the room
covered with pieces of ice, many of which were found under
the sofas half an hour afterwards, as large and nearly as hard
as marbles. To close the shutters a second time was found to
be impossible, as the liehtning almost blinded those who at-
tempted it, and the shower of hail was irresistible. In the
bed-rooms where the windows had been left open, the chairs
were thrown down, the beds drenched with hailstones, and the
floors covered with ice and glass. After raging in tilts awful
manner for about twenty minutes the storm abated.
The chief weight of the tempest seems to have fallen on the
country between Bracknell and Reading, a distance of about 11
miles. In Bracknell and Wokingham the windows on one
side of the street in each have been literally smashed in, and
are likely to afford work to the glaziers for three months. At
Easthamstead-park, the sear of the Marquis of Downshire,
great mischief has been done to the mansion and the conser-
vatories At Bill-hill, the seat of Mr. Leveson Gower, the damage
is immense, nearly all the windows on one side of the house
being broken. At Bear Wood Itso panes are broken on one
side of the house, besides all the glass in the conservatories and
skylights. At Hurst House, the residence of Sir John Con-
roy, the damage is said to amount to nearly 1,000/. At Sin-
dlesham House, the residence of Mr. T. Harman, 136 panes
are broken in the house, and the glass in the conservatories
quite destroyed. In the Berkshire Hospital at Reading 150
panes are broken4_and at Purley, near Reading, we hear that in
addition to other damage several cows have been destroyed.
The ravages of the storm out of doors are not less complete,
and are far more distressing than within doors. The devasta-
tion of the crops is immense ; whole fields of beans, peas, and
turnips, besides wheat, are as completely levelled as if they had
been cut off by a scithe, and several small farmers will probably
be ruined. The flower gardens present a most melancholy
spectacle, being completely strewed with the wrecks of their
late luxuriance, and the shoots of the young forest trees are in
many places quite cut off.
The visitation has certainly been most awful, and will be
long and painfully remembered. We are thankful to add, that
we have not heard of the loss of any lives, nor of the occurrence
of any personal injury.
The following fatal accident occurred in Hyde-park during
the thunder storm on 'Thursday evening. Shortly before nine
o'clock the signal being given for the persons waiting to bathe
to enter the waters of the Serpentine, a party, among whom
was a young man named John Marshall, 22 years of age, re-
siding. at No. 3, Lentq-court, Museum-street, Bloomsbury,
went into the water. From the time of their doing so the
lightning continued to increase in vividness, and some of the
party becoming alarmed, made fur the shore, followed by their
companions, except the deceased. His absence was, however,
not observed until they had dressed, when his name was called
several times, and no answer being returned, fears were en-
tertained that he had been struck by the electric fluid and
had sunk. Information of the circumstance was accord-
ingly immediately communicated to the officers of the Royal
Humane Society, who are stationed on the river at bathing
time, who instantly commenced dragging ; but no one being
able to point out the spot where the unfortunate young man
had gone down, full a quarter of an hour elapsed before the
body was got up by Knight, the chief boatman, by whom it
was promptly conveyed to the receiving-house, and the usual
means of resuscitation employed, but without effect, life bring
quite extinct. The body was subsequently removed to St.
George's Workhouse, in Mount-street, Grosvenor-square,
where it awaits a coroner's inquest. Some idea may be foimed
of the powerful effects of the electric fluid, when it is stated
that of the fine row of plane trees on the north side of the
Serpentine, 13 or 14 have had nearly the whole of their
foliage literally burnt up, and on the south side several of the
splendid elms have had limbs nearly the thickness of a man's
body torn off and severed from the trunks.
On Thursday night, during the storm of thunder and light-
ning, a man, named William Taylor, a hairdresser, in Red
Cross-street, Southwark, while sitting.smoking his pipe at his
shop-door, was observed to fall suddenly off his chair on the
pavement. He was immediately lifted up by some persons,
who carried him into the house, and it was there discovered by
his friends that, although he received no external injury, yet
that he was suddenly deprived of his speech and hearing, and
has remained in that condition ever since. He has, however,
the use of his faculties, and by signs and what he has written
down on paper he attributes the awful visitation to the shock
his nerves sustained by a vivid flash of lightning, which he de-
scribes as having rendered him insensible for some minutes.
On Thursday night, Brighton was visited by a violent storm
of thunder, lightning, and rain. It first broke over the sea'
and then came over the town. Tha storm was truly alarming
for upwards of arrtiour, and it is said to have been only equalled
by that in which the chain pier was so much damaged. No
serious accident or damage was heard of.