A Story Discovered - Five Children Lose Their Lives in a Fire in Chesterfield Theatre 1911
A sad but not completely forgotten story
It was on September 12th 1910 when a new theatre and picture house opened in Burlington Street, Chesterfield. Taking over the former premises of the Derbyshire Courier, The Palace Theatre promised patrons a quality experience of animated film and acts to enjoy.
The building had been renovated and made into a safe place to visit with ‘special exits’ to secure the safety of the public. However, what was to come on the 27th of December 1911 was not made safe by these exits, nor could it have been.
Before I tell this sad tale, let me explain how I discovered it.
I have been travelling back and forth from my home in Wiltshire to the Derbyshire town of Chesterfield. My son-in-law needs help each day and my daughter is his carer as well as looking after a 4 year old son. She has required surgery and is unable to do much for quite a few weeks.
Mum and dad to the rescue!
Whilst here, I researched the Spital Cemetery which is on a hillside just off the town centre and not too far away to achieve my steps for the day. It was whilst searching for information about this beautiful Victorian cemetery that I discovered references to this event.
The fateful eve, December 27th 1911
On that fateful eve, a performance was scheduled for 7.15pm featuring a number of local children.
The children arrived at approximately 5.15pm. They were to appear on stage dressed as penguins and eskimos. Once costumed, they were divided into two groups. One group of children were housed in a dressing room, the other group comprising of twelve girls in a dressing room located in a cottage next door to the theatre. The cottage was accessed from the theatre by means of a spiral staircase. The flimsy and flammable costumes were to prove to be deadly.
The girls’ chaperone, Mrs Elliot, had gone to see the other girls in the theatre dressing room to tell them be quiet. We can imagine the noise generated by a lot excited girls at this event. There are two theories as to what happened.
The first is that one of the girls threw a piece of paper or loose cotton into the open fire. This flared back and ignited the Eskimo costume of thirteen-year old Elizabeth (Lizzie) Bell, who it was said was standing with her back to the fire. Anyone with experience of open fires will have memories of standing with their back to the fire.
Understandably, Elizabeth, with her costume in flames, panicked. This spread the fire to others in the room. Mrs Elliot heard the commotion, rushed back to the room, and tried to extinguish the flames. The girls, though, were in full panic mode and rushed out of the room taking Mrs Elliot with them. They rushed onto the spiral staircase leading down to the stage, several of the girls falling to the bottom. Some adults rushed to the aid of the girls, extinguishing the flames, but for five of the girls it was too late, they died the next day in hospital from serious burns.
The second theory is that the fire started by one of the girls who was smoking (yes, it was 1911) and dropped the cigarette onto her costume and started the fire.
The five girls, Mabel Swaine (13), Lydia Smith (12), Winnie Wood (14), Ada Tidball (13) and Elizabeth Bell (13), were buried together in Spital Cemetery in in unmarked paupers graves.
The story could have ended there, but in 2017, Dave Sheldon, a friend of the cemetery got permission to mark the place where the girls where buried with headstones. I found the headstones in the cemetery and contemplated their lost lives.
No blame was found at the girls’ Coroners Inquest. Recommendations were made that all the dressing rooms should be within the theatre building and that the premises should be frequently inspected. Also, that legislation ought to be brought forward to prohibit inflammable material being used as fancy dress in any kind of entertainment. That latter point is something parents need to be aware of still in our modern times.
What happened to The Palace Theatre, Chesterfield
The Palace Theatre did reopen soon after this tragic event. Eventually it closed in 1923 as business was not good and was demolished to make room for the expansion of the Woolworth shop.
It’s a sad tale of young lives lost. It’s nice that these girls, with the passing of time have not been completely forgotten.
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Such a tragic story! And it does make you wonder about modern fancy dress costumes. (PS In paragraph 2 I think you accidentally put 2011 instead of 1911.)