OUR photograph this week is from 1964 and shows the fire that severely damaged the wine store and advertising departments of Messrs.

Gibbs Mew & Co. Ltd, the Salisbury brewers of Gigant Street, Salisbury. The fire was first spotted by Mr. J. Osmond, one of the firm’s drivers, who sounded the fire alarm to bring Salisbury Fire Brigade on the scene with water tender and the escape unit – giving many people their first sight of the ladder in use. Appliances also attended from Wilton and Amesbury.

The fire was confined mainly to the top floor and roof. The top floor contained the store of paper wrappers, advertising bills and similar papers, whilst below was the wine department. The firemen, using the escape ladder, fought the blaze from the roof as well as below and kept the flames away from an adjoining store of hundreds of wooden crates.

Fanned by a light wind, the flames spread quickly through the roof towards the main brewery and in the opposite direction towards private flats. The public house in the same building – The Anchor – was affected by smoke and water. The licensee in 1964 was Mr. Leslie Martin but he was in London – however, there was plenty of help handy to remove the furniture and belongings into the road.

It was the good fortune of the employees that they were able to get out of the building in time, although many returned to remove property and goods. The roof suffered severe damage and police had to keep the large crowd of sightseers out of range as falling tiles crashed into the street. Many were smouldering, pulled down by firemen to stop the blaze spreading. A spokesman for Gibbs said that had the firemen not controlled the fire so quickly the damage would have probably affected the actual brewery, the public house and the flats. The area has now been redeveloped and the Gibbs Brewery but a distant memory.