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Herewith a precis of a press report of a fire at the RAL in 1926. This has been kindly provided by Roger Harding whose relations were employed at the laundry at the time. Roger has also supplied these three photographs of the premises after the fire.








"Fire broke out at Barrow's Laundry inBourne Laneat half past two on Saturday morning 26th June (1926) leading to the total destruction of the laundry at an estimated cost of 30,000 in respect of buildings, machinery, plant & a large quantity of linen, the property of customers. The cause of the fire is unknown but Mr & Mrs Sharpe & Mrs Sharpe's son, Reginald Harding, who were living in the house attached tothe laundry, were awakened by their dog and found the laundry fully ablaze. The fire brigade were calledby telephone at 2.35 a.m. & the motor tenderwas on its way a few minutes laterbut the Brigade enginewas delayed due to difficulty in starting the engine. This unfortunate delay was not as serious as it might have been as the water supplyproved quite inadequate due, it transpired, to a pressure-induced burst of the main in Grove Road. The Datchet engine arrived shortly after having been alerted at 2.50 a.m. and a supply of water was found for them in a brook on the allotments but work could only be of a preventative nature to protect nearby buildings and the conflagration was well under control by 6.30 a.m. when the DatchetBrigade returned home. The Chief Constable was soon on the scene with a considerable number of police officers who cleared the crowd of some 500from the vicinity in view of the possibility of a boiler explosion."

Subsequently, the paper reports the enquiry into the inadequacies of the water supply whose pipes, dating frrom 1860 and much worn, could not handle the pressure as they reduced from 10" to 3" diameter near Bourne Avenue. Eton Council were sufficiently miffed to complainthat their brigade had not been called upon! It was also reported that the 88 year old mother-in-law of Leonard Barrow (who himself did sterling work, with two others, in saving the firm's lorries from destruction & who lived at 18, Bolton Road) was the first to spot the fire, the shock of which proved fatal, she collapsing & passing away shortly thereafter.

Many expressions of sympathy with the proprietors in their loss, and their 110 employees, were received, notably from Princess Victoria who was a customer.

Apart from the three photos, my only memento of this event is a pile of about a dozen half crowns which were in a drawer destroyed in the fire, the heat of which fused the coins into a heap that was subsequently engravedto record the date and nature of the event.

By the way, Mrs Sharpe was my grandmother & originally a Barrow.

Thanks for that. Yes, I have been confused by the names too. You say Mr Mayor that different companies occupied the same buildings, but did they work alongside each other? Did they share equipment? Or was it totally separate operations in different areas of the site?