Ceremony will honour victims of Church Stretton hotel blaze
Forgotten victims of a massive hotel fire in Shropshire which claimed the lives of three children in 1968 are to be honoured at a ceremony next month.
Tomorrow is the 45th anniversary of the blaze at The Hotel in Church Stretton, in which seven-year-old twins Alistair and Jonathan Goulder and their nine-year-old brother Korwin died.
The Goulding boys and their parents had only booked into The Hotel for one night because they had been due to move to a new home, Windways, in Shrewsbury Road, Church Stretton, the following day. The boys' funeral was held at St Laurence's in Church Stretton and their parents had a grid-iron memorial erected in the church in remembrance of them.
Memories have dimmed over the years and not many now recall that two hotel workers also perished in the fire but they are now to be officially remembered.
A plaque will be unveiled during a remembrance service on May 4 at St Laurence's Church for maid Olive Guest, who was thought to be 50, and 18-year-old waitress Mary Wilkinson, of Bloomfield Road, Newport, who lost their lives in the inferno.
The service will be attended by the Bishop of Ludlow and civic leaders and relatives of both the Goulders and the dead women have been invited to go along.
Retired fireman Alan Wildblood, the sub-officer on duty on that fateful night in 1968, also a Tuesday, remembers it as one of the most tragic in his 35 years with the fire service.
Mr Wildblood, aged 71, from Church Stretton, said: "Everyone was painfully aware at the time that five people died in the fire but I suppose memories fade over the years and the children are often remembered more than the two hotel workers."
Mr Wildblood remembered it was 11pm when his fire bell rang at home. He said: "On the Sandford Avenue side of the building two people were shouting from their bedroom window saying their three sons were trapped in the next room. A ladder was soon at the window.
"A search was undertaken and three small bodies found on the floor. They were taken to a makeshift surgery at the local butchers, where we tried to resuscitate them, but to no avail."
Mr Wildblood said he remembered the bodies of the boys being handed down to him.
He added: "About 20 minutes into the fire, the firefighters were told that a waitress and a chambermaid were also missing. They were later found dead in an upstairs kitchen."
