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On Thursday morning about nine o’clock an express arrived in Dover to Messrs Hambrook and Mummery the agents of the Norwich Union Fire Office announcing that a fire was raging violently at the above farm. The two corporation engines under the superintendence of Messrs Nazer and Gregory and manned by a sufficient body of the town porters and others to act as foreman were immediately dispatched and with four horses to each engine processed at a very rapid rate to the site of the conflagration. The engine No. 1 under the direction of Mr. Nazer first arrived on the spot and finding it was useless to attempt to save the farm buildings that were entirely destroyed. He commenced playing upon the portion connecting the buildings with the stack yard and in saving the property therein as well as the mansion. The buildings destroyed consisted of a barn, a coach house, two stables and a granary. No livestock or corn was sacrificed but a considerable quantity of straw and fodder was destroyed. The buildings are insured for £625 in the Norwich Union and the dead stock for £300. The carts, and some other portion of the dead stock for £300. The carts and some other portion of the dead stock were however saved. The fire was first discovered by a female servant of Mr. Every who perceived the barn was on fire and gave the alarm to her master and their being no person on the premises he with her assistance went to the coach house and dragged out the carriage. Mr. Every then rang the alarm bell and dispatched the servant to Ewell where Mr. Smith the tenant and owner of the stock reside.

Mr. Smith and the labourers on the farm quickly arrived together with other assistance and with the aid of the Dover engines as we before mentioned the further spread of fire was entirely prevented. This fire is not supposed to be the work of an incendiary but to arise from the dangerous practise of smoking in or near the farmyard. Mr. Smith states that about seven o’clock he went to the farm and saw the men coming from the stable. He went into the house and afterwards upon coming out imagining that he smelt smoke asked the man whether he had been smoking in the stable to which he replied to the negative and that he had smoked his pipe in the field early in the morning. He then sent the man to his work and went home to breakfast when he was shortly afterwards alarmed by Mr. Every’s servant. The fog was very dense and the men in the field not far distant state that they could not perceive any fire or were they aware of it until summoned by the alarm bell. Had it not been for the timely arrival of the engine and the mode in which it was worked, the mansion would most probably have been destroyed. The wind was high at the time and burning flakes were picked up from the London Road a distance of about half a mile. (1844)