Standing in the grounds of the churchyard at Burwell, Cambridgeshire, is a double-sided headstone, remembering 78 people who burnt to death in a barn fire in Burwell in 1727.
The victims are listed in the Burwell parish burial registers as having been attending Robert Shepheard’s puppet show, and that an unattended candle, left by a servant named Richard Whittaker from Hadstock, Essex, caused the fire through negligence.
And the opposite side of the headstone carries a note.
Robert Shepheard (the master of the puppet show), his wife, daughter, and two servants were amongst the dead.
Richard Whittaker survived and ended up in court. He was acquitted.
How tragic! Back then, that would have been a large portion of the village?
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