Living In North Street In 2008 After The Fire In 2005

A Memory of Bradford Abbas.

This photograph is wonderful for me to see having just moved back into Bumblebee Cottage on the far right of the picture after the catastrophic fire on 22 December 2005 that destroyed 4 cottages - Bumblebee Cottage, Hollyhocks, The Old Chapel and Virginia Cottage.  My cottage looks the same from the back, the front will feel and look the same once I have replanted the front garden.  Inside it is beautiful.  All brand new but old at the same time.  And the best news is that thanks to the intervention of English Heritage we still have four listed properties rather than four modern constructions made to look old with a bit of stone cladding but essentially constructed of breeze blocks and plastboard rather than random rubble - and all because the Loss Adjustors tried to save money for the insurers.  But they were rumbled!  Once again North Street looks nearly as it should.  We still await the owners of The Old Chapel (where the fire started) and Hollyhocks to return.  Annie Hamshaw-Thomas 6 July 2008