MANSION FIRE.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 February 1926, Page 2

MANSION FIRE.

[Australia & N.Z. Cable Association.]

FOUR INCINERATED. LONDON, Feb. 15

Four fatalities occurred at a tire which gutted Culton Hall, near Tarpurl ey, in Cheshire, the ancestral home of .Sir Phillip Grey Kggleton. The tire destroyed most of 'the art treasures therein, which included many line pictures, some being by Reubens and Landseer.

A band of people were in tine Grand Salon, attempting to save the pictures. when the room roof collapsed, cutting off the escape of two men and two women, who were incinerated. Several others were injured, two seriously. Culton Hall was occupied by a Manchester ironmaster to whom it had bci?n lent liv .Sir Grey Eggleton, who left Cheshire on Friday for Nice. LONDON, Feh. 15.

John A’nnbrugh was the architect of Culton Hall, which was one of the show houses of Cheshire. It was one standing in a magnificent deer park of 350 acres. The fire began in the upper part of the house. It spread with lightning rapidity. Soon the Hall was a roaring furnace, hut the treasures of art "ere so valuable and so numerous that there was a great temptation to try and save them. To the last moment there was a party of servants in the grand salon, which was a noble room of black and whiti 1 marble. They were pulling down the pictures and priceless panelling, when the ceiling collapsed. Only those near the windows were able to break the glass and escape. Two maids ran to an upper room to try and save the valuables there, hut the floor fell, precipitating them into the burning debris.

ADrli fine carved woodwork was lost. and also famous panels in Chinese lacquer.

FIREMAN’S DEATH. (Received this day at 8 a.mA 'LOXDOX, Fob. 15. A volunteer lineman who was injured at a fire at Oulton Hall has died. The damage is estimated at a quarter of a million sterling.