For generations, Redmays, a picturesque cottage in Stourbridge, had been regarded as a cherished local landmark — instantly recognisable as one of the few surviving thatched-roof homes in this part of the West Midlands.
But after a ferocious blaze tore through the leafy neighbourhood earlier this month, the historic family home was reduced to ruins, with only a single teapot left behind among the wreckage.
In a cruel twist, the thatched roof that had long made Redmays so distinctive and beloved is believed to have helped the fire spread with devastating speed, leaving the property with little chance once the flames took hold.
The owner, an 89-year-old grandmother who has asked to remain anonymous, was the oldest resident rescued from Quarry Park Road when the fire broke out on August 13.
Nineteen homes were destroyed in total as the wildfire swept through the area on the hottest day of the year. Police believe the blaze may have been deliberately started in a nearby farmer’s field before spreading rapidly across roughly 500 acres of land.
The elderly resident escaped with only moments to spare as the thatch above her began to burn.
Witnesses captured dramatic video showing flames racing across the roof before engulfing it completely.
Her daughter has now told the Mail that the family has been left heartbroken by the loss of the home they had known and loved for nearly 50 years.
Redmays was a well-known cottage on the fringes of Stourbridge, with one of the few remaining thatched roofs in the borough of Dudley
But the historic home was totally gutted by a catastrophic fire that swept across the market town on the hottest day of the year
Dramatic footage captured by witnesses shows the moment that flames consume the thatch roof entirely
In the garage, the twisted remnants of an Austin 7 – a gift bought for the 89-year-old homeowner by her late husband in the 1960s – is still just about visible
The daughter broke down when she saw the state of the house – and what little was left
The only possession not to be totally destroyed by the fire was a small teapot
Sentimentally, the loss they have suffered is incalculable, with the daughter revealing her father’s ashes were among the cherished items lost in the flames.
‘Daddy died five years ago,’ she said. ‘I’m glad he’s gone because he would have been absolutely devastated by this.’
The gutting of the family home took an immediate toll on her mother’s health and she is now living in a nursing home after suffering a heart attack.
Heartbreaking pictures shared with the Mail show how Redmays has been reduced to ruin. In the blackened husk of the garage, the twisted wreckage of an Austin 7 can still just about be made out – a gift bought for the homeowner by her late husband in the 1960s.
The daughter said she and her husband had been living with her mother due to her ailing health.
‘Thank goodness my husband and I were there,’ she said.
‘Unfortunately, an ember must have jumped over the trees and caught the roof.
‘My husband had gone out to look at where the smoke was coming from, seen the neighbouring field was on fire and ran back.
‘The neighbours, two men who I don’t know, ran down and got mummy out.
‘My mother owns the house and she’s lost everything. My mother is nearly 90 and she saved everything, I mean she even saved the top of her wedding cake.
‘She has nothing left.’
It took three days for the family to be allowed to return to Redmays to survey the damage, which even destroyed their swimming pool
The family have lived in Redmays for almost half a century, but now face having to rebuild the entire house
Around 500 acres of land was devoured by the inferno, destroying 19 properties
Redmays was built in 1934 and has been well known locally for many years as the ‘thatched house on the corner’, the daughter said. The house even made headlines in 2016 when work was undertaken to rethatch the roof.
After the fire, it was three days before any of the families whose homes had been destroyed were allowed within the police cordon to see what remained of their former lives.
‘When I went back, I could not believe it,’ the daughter said. ‘In my heart I honestly thought there would be a couple of rooms I could paint up and mum and I would be able to go home, I don’t know why.
‘So when I went there with the police, I had a complete breakdown and started shouting and screaming at the police and my husband to go away and leave me alone.
‘It was terrible.’
A police officer showed the daughter a ‘baby’ teapot that officers had recovered from the house – the only item not to be totally destroyed.
She said her mother had been living in Redmays since 1983, when the family had moved from Birkenhead in Merseyside.
The daughter joked: ‘It’s a very pretty house and my father, when he bought it, said it was everything he didn’t want – he didn’t want leaded windows, he didn’t want thatch and he didn’t want a rendered house.
‘But I just think of the joy of when we came here from the back streets of Birkenhead.
‘We came from nothing, so the joy in 1983 was of moving somewhere so beautiful after where I grew up.
‘I would do anything to sit in my snug with my ma and pa again. Anything.’
The family are now in the knotty process of sorting out an insurance claim on behalf of the elderly homeowner, before embarking on the slow and arduous operation to rebuild the house.
The daughter said: ‘This is never, ever, how I dreamt my mother’s life would end. I know that this will be the end for my mother and that, to me, is the worst thing.
‘There is joy in that house and we had a wonderful, very happy, time there.
‘But, for me, this is not how I envisaged it ending.’
Police are understood to be investigating whether the fire this month was started deliberately.
The Mail previously revealed that a relative of the landowner where the fire originated believes it was started on purpose in three different places.
Brian Pardoe, 69, said it was the second fire in a matter of weeks on his cousin’s land.
‘That was actually a spark off the combine,’ he said of the previous fire. ‘This one seems a bit more deliberate, doesn’t it?
‘It was started in three places. It was burning in three different places at one stage, so an accident looks unlikely to me.’
