Sad Day

Working in the garden at about 12.45, I glanced at the brewery buildings and saw smoke, and then flames, coming from a small section of the roof near the top. It was not immediately clear whether anyone but me was aware of it, so I went to the end of the garden to make sure. I soon worked out that people were reacting, but there were no sirens, alarms or panic

A few moments later I heard, with relief, the siren of a fire engine, and assumed it would soon be over. Naive and foolish me. The fire spread across the entire roof of a 20 metre, two storey historic building - the stable block, with offices and a couple of flats on the first floor. Flames were visible in the first floor, and at one point there were several explosions inside. Most of the roof has gone completely; the first floor is badly damaged. In the end, 9 or 10 fire engines came before it was controlled. A huge volume of water has been pumped in. Guys are still spraying water on it from a platform above now, at past 10pm; they are keeping watch all night

No-one, two-legged or four, is hurt

It was a lovely building, that I have photographed many times. In this image, everything facing the camera is still there, but all the roof to the right of that has gone. I took pictures of the blaze, of course, but couldn't post them. There are plenty here, if you would like to see them 

I have found the whole experience very unnerving. The power and irresistable nature of the thing was frightening; it made it very easy to understand how people get killed. James, managing director and fourth generation since the foundation of the brewery is putting an admirably positive spin on things. He is a trained, reserve fire-fighter himself, which may help explain how he is keeping such a level head