Between the hours of 12 a.m. and 1 a.m. there took hold ‘a most fierce and terrible fire as [if] it had been wildfire, which burned most faire houses in the Towne. It took good holde of pitch, tar, rossen, flax, gunpowder and such like commodities, and ceased not until it had burned 273 houses.’
Fanned by a ‘boisterous wind’, the timber houses rapidly burned. The wells were dry because of a drought, so people had either to run to the Skerne for water, or toss liquids like milk and beer onto the flames.
Much of High Row and Skinnergate was destroyed, including the house of the leading Eure family. Prosperous merchant Francis Oswell lost goods valued at £1,000, and in total the fire was said to have caused £20,000 of damage.
Although the area around St Cuthbert’s church was untouched, the Great Fire of Darlington rendered about 800 of Darlington’s 1,200 inhabitants homeless. They sought shelter in barns in nearby villages. A pamphlet, ‘Lamentable Newes from the Towne of Darnton’, told of the ‘poor distressed people’ in need of help. Their distress deepened in the autumn when the farmers evicted them from the barns so they could store their harvest.
Although the town was rebuilt on the old medieval street layout, it took several generations for Darlington to recover.
(‘Memories’, The Northern Echo, 2011)