The Great Fire of Baddow

William Chiddicks is my 1st Cousin 4 x removed and for whatever reason, he was not one of those ancestors that I was immediately drawn to. I had his Baptism record, he was baptised on 8th March 1835 in South Fambridge, Essex, I had his marriage record, he married Mary Ann Waite Watson on 18th October 1856 in South Fambridge in Essex and I had his burial record, he was buried on 3rd March 1917 in Great Baddow in Essex. Add to this, I also had every census record from 1841 to 1911 and there was nothing remarkable or particularly noteworthy in any of the records, in fact it was quite the opposite, William was a most unremarkable ancestor in every way, but one that kindly left a record everywhere for me to find, it was a case of job done, or maybe not………

So, if you are already one step ahead of me, you might be wondering why such an ancestor is the subject of a blog? I’m sure that you will have already picked up the clues in the title of this blog. It wasn’t until I started to delve a bit deeper into the records and examine the records outside the BMD’s and census returns that I discovered the story of the Great Mussel’s Farm Fire, that took place in the Chiddicks’ household. The newspaper records on FindMyPast revealed the following shocking newspaper article:

Taken from the Southend Standard and Essex Weekly Advertiser 28th March 1884:

Fire- A fire occurred at Great Mussell’s Farm on Bowers Marshes about 2 O’clock on the morning of Tuesday, through the bursting of a paraffin lamp in the bedroom in the cottage where a shepherd names Chiddicks lived. The cottage was completely burnt down with the exception of the two chimney stacks; it was a wood built house with tile roof. Great Mussells Farm is the property of Major Spitty, J.P. of Billericay and is held by Mr. William Clark, Rookery Farm, Mucking. Chiddicks about 1-30am got up to look after the sheep, which lay in a yard joining the cottage; he states that he left a glass paraffin lamp burning upstairs on a chest of drawers, his wife and grandchild being in bed. He had been out with the sheep half an hour when his wife came and told him the lamp had burst he could not get into the bedroom as it was full of smoke. The whole of Chiddicks furniture, which was insured, was burnt with the exception of two chairs, the beer cask and wine bottles being got out safe. The Wife and the grandchild escaped with nothing on but their nightdresses. Mrs Williams of Bowers rectory, kindly sent some clothing for Chiddicks wife. The fire was entirely confined to the cottage and it was fortunate that it did not extend to the farm premises, as there were about 250 lambing ewes in the yard. The Rayleigh fire engine was sent for and arrived about 5-30am but too late to save the cottage.

Subsequent newspaper reports estimated the loss at £100.

One can’t imagine the sight that Mrs Chiddicks found herself facing, waking up in the middle of the night to a blazing fire in the bedroom. This would have been made even worse by the fact that staying in the family home at the time was their grandchild. How you recover from such a devastating loss of your home and all its contents really is a testament to the strength of character of the Chiddicks family at the time, the sheer terror from an event like this will stay with you for the rest of your life. To bounce back like they did is remarkable. By the time the 1891 census was taken, William and Mary were living at Great Sir Hughes Farm in Great Baddow, Essex. William continued working the farmlands around Chelmsford throughout his life, reaching a grand age of 82 before passing away and his wife Mary lived until she was 91 years old and both are buried in Great Baddow in Essex.

(William’s Burial Record)

(Mary’s Burial Record)

Looking back to the night of the fire and the circumstances surrounding what happened, it did make me question the ‘what if’s’ and what might have happened that night, things could have ended up far worse for William and his family. Like many of the stories that we uncover, we are left with far more questions than we have answers. Any attempt at trying to interpret the circumstances is purely conjecture, but having said that, it’s reasonable to question and challenge things, after all, that’s what every good Family Historian should do. It’s when we question things and then make incorrect assumptions or interpretations that we are guilty of adding our own bias to the facts. I have included below a few interesting observations of my own and some additional facts that I was able to find out from the Essex Record Office, which I have detailed below:

The only things that were saved from the fire were a beer cask, wine bottles and two chairs, I am not sure what that tells you about my ancestors!! The fire broke out at 01-30am and it took the fire brigade four hours to arrive, at 05-30am. We have to be so thankful for our emergency services today and we can easily forget that the simple things we take for granted these days would have been vastly different for our ancestors. The newspapers and the records held by the Essex Record Office were not able to add anything further to the story other than what I already had, but it’s worth noting that the farm was up for sale six years before the fire. The Essex Herald dated 18 June 1878 has an advert for the sale by Auction of Great Mussels Farm, which included the bailiffs house which would have been the property occupied by William Chiddicks and his family.

There are no further references to Great Mussels farm at the Essex Record Office apart from a document T/P 331/1 titled “The Marshland Farms of Bowers Gifford….” Which is the recollections of Dick Thomason where he talks about Great Mussels Farmhouse;  “The ruined house at Great Mussels, which was finally vacated during the 1960’s, was built towards the end of the 19^th century but must have occupied the site of a much older house”, there is no mention of the fire, but this suggests to me that the farmhouse was rebuilt on the grounds of the Chiddicks farm house. There is a further reference to the farm where the estates of the Spitty family were broken up in 1917 and sold at Auction; sale catalogue SALE/B5688, lot 59 is Great Mussels farm which is described as a small farm house.

Sale of the Spitty Estate

None of this of course adds any further evidence to the story of what happened that night. Although it’s tempting to read between the lines and create our own theories or stories, it isn’t always possible to know the truth, without finding further actual evidence. This is one of those stories that leaves us with more questions than answers and once again, it just shows you what can be found when you look beyond the BMD’s and census returns.

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