Moulton Hall (White Hall) 

was situated by the road, opposite No.3 Dalham Rd (not to be confused with the present Moulton Hall). Opposite the hall in the meadow, was a dew pond. This letter was written by a Moulton resident, acknowledgement to Mr Collins of Kennett.

On Tuesday night, the 20th November, 1921, The Moulton Hall belonging to Mr Lane, was burned to the ground. Now I am not going to give you a description of the fire but an account of the brilliant, active, hard working Brigade and the antiquated engine, which the try-to-be-up-to-date town of Newmarket, can turn out on such important occasion as a fire. Newmarket possesses two fire engines, but the better of the two is kept only for show and state parades, not to put fires out three miles away. About twenty to ten on Tuesday night a telephone message was got through, for the urgent despatch of the fire engine, which eventually arrived a few minutes after twelve, after all hope of saving the house had gone.

The horses came at a very steady pace and gentle trot down the village street and would not have woken up the lightest sleeper. When asked "Why so long getting here?", on of the men replied "They could not find a bridle". Another man, thinking that the excuse would not go down, made haste to state, "That they could not locate the fire". The fact that the glare in the sky could be seen for several miles around, obviously made the excuse a wash out. After some further delay, the hose was got out, one end dropped in the pond and "All hands" called to the pumps, the other end of the hose approached the fire when "Hold hard, we can't have that new bit of hose next to the fire", stopped operations for some minutes, while the hose was reconstructed.

The last fire in Moulton, was about 25 years ago, when the old Kings Head was burned down. Some of the villagers recognised one or two of the men as being at that fire and even expressed the opinion that they were the same horses and they came at the same jog trot then, with like results, with the same merry old engine After the villagers had got tired of pumping for several hours (the five men of the Brigade, took care that they did none of the pumping, but stood and gazed at the fire). The fire was considered out and the hard working firemen left at 9.30 am on Wednesday. However the fire was not out and the Brigade had to be forced to return and finish their job during the evening. And all this redounds to the credit of Newmarket and its antiquarian fire engine!

©2000 John Gunson, Village Recorder