SILVIO HOUSE is graced with a great name and it is adorned by two of our favourite things: a sundial and, even more excitingly, a firemark.
Silvio House, as we reported here yesterday, is in Hurgill Road, Richmond, and was built by jockey Charles Dawson who, in 1764, rode Silvio to win the Richmond Gold Cup - Silvio was the first local horse to win the fabulous trophy and so was a real local hero.
Silvio House in Hurgill Road was built by Silvio's jockey, Charles Dawson, in the 1780s
If you missed the full Silvio story, it is here
The sundial and, top, the Phoenix firemark above the door of Silvio House in Richmond
Firemarks are fabulous. They were lead plates given out by insurance companies to show that a property was insured. Many of them have the policy number beneath the company’s logo.
Firemarks had to be clearly visible on a property but also had to be high up so they couldn’t be stolen.
Before the advent of the municipal fire brigade, the insurance companies employed their own brigades and it is said that when a private brigade arrived at a blaze, if the firemen could not see the firemark through the flames, they would turn round and go home because they would not be paid for tackling them.
They would therefore leave the house to burn down.
There are not many records of this actually happening, and certainly by the early 19th Century, the firemark was as much about advertising for the company and boasting for the homeowner that he was rich enough to have something to insure.
A Phoenix firemark, like the one on Silvio House - there's another one of these somewhere in Richmond
Silvio House’s firemark is from the Phoenix Assurance Company, which was the first company to offer homeowners insurance against fire.
It was started in London in 1667 – the year after the Great Fire – and for 30 shillings, it would insure a property for £100 for seven years.
The brains behind the company was Nicholas Barbon, an MP, property developer, builder and economist who is said to have been the first to espouse the free market. He is also said to have been baptised with the name Ifjesuschristhadnotdiedfortheethouhadstbeendamned by his father who throughout his life rejoiced in being called Praisegod Barbon.
Ifjesuschristhadn… sorry, Nicholas gained a reputation as a ruthless property developer – he would demolish a person’s house and build many dwellings on the plot before anyone noticed – and he also came up with the fire insurance idea, which was copied by many companies.
In this area, the Sun Fire Office (above) was one of the most prevalent, and its firemark showing a blazing sun can still be spotted.
“The firemark on Silvio House is one of only three still remaining in Richmond,” says Jane Hatcher, the Richmond historian who drew our attention to the firemark. “Over to you to find the other two!”
This is too good a gauntlet not to pick up. Can you locate Richmond’s other two firemarks, or do you know of any surviving firemarks elsewhere?
The only other Phoenix firemark that we know of in the area is on Bishop Cosin’s Hall (above) on Palace Green in Durham, and we believe the only firemark in Darlington has recently disappeared: it was on the Little Burdon farmhouse, beside the A66 (below). The farmhouse, as regular readers will know, is a 17th Century listed building but in the last 20 years has fallen disgracefully derelict.
Within the last five years, its Globe Insurance Company firemark – probably made of tinned copper and about 200 years old – has been eased off and taken away.
So firemarks need recording and cherishing. Please email chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk with any firemark sightings.
The Globe firemark that has recently disappeared from Little Burdon Farm
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