SUSPECTED incendiarism in other words, arson was the unusual heading over a Journal report of fire at two country cottages exactly 100 years ago this week.

On Tuesday, the interior of a thatched cottage near Fladbury Mill was found to be on fire. The occupants, Mrs Holloway and her son Charles, who is a private in the 2nd Worcesters, had retired to bed at 11 o'clock.

The son states that he was disturbed from his sleep at 2.20am by volumes of smoke coming into his room, and he found the staircase on fire and other woodwork smouldering. He woke his mother and the two quickly got out of danger. They and neighbours, the Izod family, ran to the river about 20 yards away and conveyed buckets of water to the scene, and the fire was soon subdued.

Had the fire not been discovered when it was, nothing of the cottage would have been saved, and Mrs Holloway and her son might have perished. The cause of the fire is unknown but Private Holloway believes it to have been the work of an incendiary.

Two days later, a thatched cottage belonging to Mr F.D Holland in the nearby village of Cropthorne was also found to be on fire just before midnight. The occupants, the Slater family, managed to put out the flames quickly, confining the outbreak to one gable end.

It has since been rumoured that a tramp who was convicted of thefts in the area some time back, had been seen in the neighbourhood at the time of both fires and may have been seeking revenge for his imprisonment.