By Alison Bailey
One of the most popular objects in Amersham Museum’s collection is a stuffed cockatoo. In 1935 the cockatoo became a hero when he saved the lives of the inhabitants of the Crown Hotel with his shrill squawks during a devastating fire. When Cocky, believed to be around 118 years old, died the following year, his demise was reported in national papers like the Daily Express, and the local press from Fraserburgh to Portsmouth. The white cockatoo, with a sulphur yellow crest, was then stuffed and displayed on the newly built hotel bar under a glass dome.
Fire!
The manager of the Crown, Mrs Horner was the first to wake in the early hours of Saturday 14 December, alerted by the screeching of the bird. She saw the flames and unable to get the telephone to work, woke her husband before running out barefoot in her nightclothes to wake William Line, the superintendent of the volunteer fire brigade, who lived close-by in Broadway.
In the meantime, Mr Rotherham, the chef, rescued the hotel’s maids, Mrs Terry and Mrs Major by helping them through their bedroom windows and lowering them down to the roof of the kitchen below before climbing out after them. Mrs Terry was reported as saying: “The first thing I heard was the crackle of flames and someone screaming ‘Fire!’ I went out and found the place in flames. I just rushed back into the room for a coat, then the lights went out, and I bumped into the door in the dark. I seemed to get into a corner from which I could not get out. I was nearly finished and should have been burned had it not been for the chef who helped us out of the window”.
Mr Veal, a porter, Mr Butler, a barman and Mr Thorham, the kitchen porter also managed to escape safely. There were no guests at the hotel at the time. The cockatoo survived but two cats perished, including the manager’s beloved Persian who was the bird’s close companion.
The Amersham and Chesham Fire Brigades were quickly on the scene. Despite eight strong jets, it was some time before the flames were under control. The fire was believed to have started in the lounge, and the main building was gutted. The kitchen was saved as were the stables and buildings across the courtyard.
The town folk rallied round the staff with offers of accommodation and replacement clothing as most of them had lost everything, including clothes, jewellery and papers.
The hero
Known as ‘Cocky of the Crown’, the cockatoo seems to have been a fixture of the bar for many years. One writer in 1931 described him as “part of the furniture of the Crown Hotel for the past eighty years” who “sits on my shoulder if I lunch there on my way from London”. Another described how he once escaped from the hotel and “took to the woods where his cries, shrieks and words gave them the reputation for being haunted”.
Once the terrified cockatoo had been captured by staff after the fire, he was temporarily rehomed at the Rose and Crown in Tring. In the September of the following year, according to one writer “he seemed happy, but he missed his familiar surroundings, pined for them, caught a chill and then pneumonia and died”. Cocky was preserved by a local taxidermist and after the hotel had been rebuilt, returned to Amersham to be displayed on the hotel bar for many years. He was donated to the museum in urgent need of conservation and is now displayed in a glass case in the 1930s section of the museum.
The Crown Hotel
At the time of the fire, the Crown was owned by Trust Houses Ltd, later Trust House Forte who had purchased the hotel in 1928 for £5000. It had nine letting rooms and only one bathroom. The hotel had its origins as a timber-framed inn which was constructed during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. A series of fires (including the one in1935) destroyed much of the original oak framing, but some timbers and wall paintings have survived which are believed to date from the 1500s.
The early inn was owned by the Child family for generations who were brewers. As the roads from London improved, it became a coaching inn and post house. Mail was conveyed from Amersham by the Crown’s postboy on horseback to link with the mail coaches at Beaconsfield until the landlord was dismissed by the Royal Mail for inefficiency. He had been using the post office horse on his local farm!
Montague Garrard Drake of Shardeloes purchased the Crown in 1728, and the Drake family continued to own the Crown until 1928. The Fowler family became tenants and the innkeepers from about 1740, having lived in the Amersham area for many generations.
From the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, right through to 1872, the Court of Petty Sessions met at the Crown. This evolved to become the local Magistrates Court which met there on the last Monday of each month until 1872 when it moved to the Market Hall. The Crown also operated as the Inland Revenue Excise Office until 1907 when it moved to 111 High Street.
Following a serious fire in 1802 the Crown Inn was completely refronted in red brick and Georgian sash windows were installed. At the same time, it was re-roofed with Welsh slates as these can be less steep, to increase the headroom in the upstairs bedrooms. A handsome pillared portico was added, extending from the front entrance to the edge of the pavement. Unfortunately, this was frequently damaged by passing vehicles and was finally removed after it was demolished by a lorry in 1963. In 1938 the hotel expanded to include the adjoining shop, Howell’s haberdashery, which became the new entrance to the public bar and provided new rooms for the staff.
Sources
British Newspaper Archive