CINEMAGOERS were less than pleased when they were told to evacuate because a neighbouring shop had caught fire.

Firefighters feared that the blaze at May’s Stores in West St Helen Street, Abingdon, could spread to the Regal cinema, which backed on to the building.

But according to one member of the audience, the manager’s request for everyone to leave in an orderly fashion “was greeted rudely”.

The fire broke out on the night of Saturday, October 14, 1961 and was one of the worst in the town’s history.

The roof and front wall of the three-storey building collapsed just 20 minutes after the blaze was reported.

The contents of the hardware store, including paint, fireworks and carpets, worth many thousands of pounds, were destroyed.

We were reminded of the fire by Gladys Carter, describing a lifetime of memories of living in Abingdon (Memory Lane, February 28).

She watched the fire with many others outside Pearce’s decorating shop across the road in Lombard Street, where she worked.

Had the fire spread, they could have been in danger – gallons of paraffin had been pumped into the basement of Pearce’s shop a few hours before.

Abingdon firemen were first on the scene and because of the number of old buildings in the area, they immediately called for back-up.

Crews from Oxford, Reading, RAF Abingdon, Didcot, Wantage, Wallingford, Faringdon and Eynsham arrived after picking their way through thick fog blanketing the county that night.

When the roof and front wall collapsed, tons of bricks and rubble fell into the heart of the flames, but firemen only a few yards away were unhurt.

The noise of the collapse was heard as far away as Wootton and Hanney, and the glow of flames was visible for several miles, even with the fog.

A few days after the fire, bulldozers arrived to clear away many tons of rubble.