All those who died in the fire 300 years ago were buried in the churchyard of St Mary’s

Next year will mark the 300th anniversary of a dreadful tragedy in a small community in Cambridgeshire. On September 8, 1727, 51 children and 27 adults were killed in a horrible fire in a barn in Burwell.

Lots of people were there to watch a puppet show. Unbelievably, the door of the barn was nailed up after they had gone inside.

This horrific story is remembered in the church graveyard of St Mary the Virgin, displaying a memorial depicting a flaming heart. A tombstone reads: “The 78 people who were burnt to death in a barn at Burwell on September 8, 1727.”

The story has been told in Burwell’s Parish Register, which said: “At about nine o’clock on the evening of September 8th 1727, fire broke out in a barn, in which a great number of persons were met together to see a puppet show.”

The parish register added that there was one small door, which was nailed up, and was not easy to be broken down. It said that “most of these that did escape, which was but very few, were forced to crawl over the bodies of those that lay in a heap by the door”.

All those who died were buried in the churchyard of St Mary’s. A few months later, in March 1728, the man who had been in charge of the lantern which was reportedly left near a heap of straw, was tried at an assize held in Cambridge. He was acquitted.

A first-hand account from a survivor claimed many more people than the barn would accommodate wanted to see the show, so the door was nailed shut to prevent anyone else from coming in.

Nearly half a century later, a local newspaper reported that an old man living in a village near Newmarket had left a deathbed confession. This admitted to starting the fire deliberately.

The newspaper wrote: “He said he had a burden to disclose. He then confessed that he had set fire to the barn at Burwell on Sept. 8th 1727, when no less than eighty persons unhappily lost their lives.

“He said he was an Ostler at the time, and that having an antipathy to the puppet showman, was the cause of his committing that diabolical action attended with such dreadful consequences.“ No name was published in the article.