Fire at Sheffield

[RichardB]

Provincial Occurences 1799

Lately at Sheffield, the house of Sîgnîor Petro, the celebrated maker of fire-works, unfortunatcly was set on fire, and the explosion was so vегу sudden and so extremeluy dreadful, that an officer in the Somerset sencible cavalry and several other persons, who happened to be present, unfortunately losl their lives.

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Somerset sencible calalry - any thoughts ?

[Bayleaf]

Provincial Occurences 1799

Lately at Sheffield, the house of Sîgnîor Petro, the celebrated maker of fire-works, unfortunatcly was set on fire, and the explosion was so vегу sudden and so extremeluy dreadful, that an officer in the Somerset sencible cavalry and several other persons, who happened to be present, unfortunately losl their lives.

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Somerset sencible calalry - any thoughts ?

A victim of the 'long S' I think Richard! It should be the Somerset Fencible Cavalry. Fencible was shortened from Defensible. They were regiments raised for the defence of the realm against the French (who else!) to allow regular units to serve abroad.

The next question is, what was an officer of a Somerset regiment doing in Sheffield?

On the subject of fires, at the recent meeting about the castle, one of the experts raised the question of why whenever development work takes place in the city centre, the archaeologists don't look for the ash layer from the burning of the town and castle in 1266.

According to him, Sheffield is the only town in England to have been completely razed to the ground in mediaeval times.

[RichardB]

Long S, I couldn't even spell Cavalry correctly !!!