The beer is moved from Rushden’s ‘petrol hotel’
Hit by two bombs in 1940, Rushden’s Queen Victoria Hotel was again “in the wars” this week – and had to be evacuated when petrol from an unknown source flowed into a drain beneath the cellar.

The smell of petrol was first noticed on Monday night.

Firemen with an engine stood by on Tuesday because fumes had spread throughout the 30-roomed building.

During Wednesday morning the slow infiltration of petrol became a gush.

The smell increased and with it the danger of fire or explosion.

It was out of the question to heat the building or use the cooking apparatus. By midday all departments were closed down.

Beer from the cellar was taken back to the brewery to avoid contamination. Residential guests were transferred to other hotels in the district.

Manager Stays On
Only Mr. Monty Dards, the manager, and his wife, remained to spend a cold night on the premises. They had to keep windows wide open as an outlet for the fumes.

Their diet, too, was cold.

In the meantime, police and council officials investigated. Samples of the petrol, described by Mr. H. W. Ellis, sanitary inspector, as “looking like cherry cider,” were taken away in gin bottles.

But no evidence of leakage could be found at garages and stores in a wide area.

It was found, however, that the water and petrol passing beneath the hotel emerged into a ditch near the Royal Theatre. The outlet was cleared enabling the stream to pass through the drain at a quicker pace.

Yesterday morning inquiries concentrated on Hamblin’s Garage in Rectory Road, Rushden.

This garage, about 200 yards from the hotel, stocks petrol similar in colour to that found in the cellar.

A tank was emptied and experts began an air pressure test which was expected to last for several hours.

The position at the hotel was then improving, and it was hoped to resume business within a short time.

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16th April 1954

Petrol probe ends with well discovery
Fifty years ago a 20ft deep well was closed because its contaminated water was dangerous to health

On Saturday the well was opened again – and so ended a five-day petrol probe by council officials, firemen, police and an Army mine detector squad.

Inside the well was 12 gallons of red petrol – the petrol that had seeped through to a drain which runs beneath the Queen Victoria Hotel, causing the hotel to be closed for thirty hours.

The well is two hundred yards away from the hotel in the back garden of 14 Victoria Road, the home of Mrs. Rose Billingham and her family.

Mine Detectors
Mrs. Billingham had read about the petrol mystery in the evening paper and contacted Mr. H. W. Ellis, the Rushden sanitary inspector, for earlier this year there had been a strong smell of petrol in her house.

The hotel reopened after the 30-hour explosion scare and while residents had afternoon tea on Friday, two Sappers from a Bedford Royal Engineers T.A. unit “swept” the hotel grounds with mine detectors.

Police were working on the theory that the petrol was flowing from a drum of fuel buried somewhere in the extensive gardens.

Made Complaints
This was proved wrong the next day with the opening of Mrs. Billingham’s well. But the complete answer to the leakage had not yet been found.

From what source had the petrol reached the well?

Just behind the well is a garage which was once a farmyard. During the war the yard was occupied at various times by British, American and Canadian troops. They may have had a petrol tank buried underground.

Residents in Victoria Road have made a number of complaints to the council offices about the smell of petrol in their homes during the cold spells of the past two years.

Until the discovery of the well, officials were always unable to find a solution to the trouble. Now everyone is happy.