The Times [London]
30th Oct 1832, page 2
Saturday last, about 3 o’clock, a most alarming and destructive fire broke out on the premises of Mr. Charles Giblin, in the fields of Great Swaffham, near Newmarket.
It commenced on the top of a barn wherein two men were thrashing, and the account of one of these men is, that he heard a report like that from a gun; he immediately went out to see from whence it came, and on turning round discovered the barn in flames.
Not a drop of water could be procured, except what was raised by the two buckets of a deep well, or brought from a distance of more than a mile by water-carts: so that the engines which arrived from Cambridge and other places were totally useless, and in a short time the barn, 11 stacks of corn, 40 coombs of thrashed corn, stables, cow-sheds, farming implements, &c., were entirely consumed. The cottage, which was of brick and slate, and two stacks, were the only property preserved.
Although a great part of the property was insured, the loss to the proprietor will be very great; and it is painful to add, that no doubt exists but the conflagration was from the diabolic hand of an incendiary.